People's Agents and the Battle to Protect the American Public
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A01=Rena Steinzor
A01=Sidney Shapiro
academic
america
american
Author_Rena Steinzor
Author_Sidney Shapiro
bureaucracy
Category=JKS
Category=JPP
climate change
college
dangerous
environment
environmental
environmentalist
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eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
federal
government
health
higher education
legislation
legislative
natural resources
nature
political
politics
pollution
professor
protection
public
regulation
regulatory
research
safety
scholarly
systemic
united states
usa
white house
Product details
- ISBN 9780226772028
- Weight: 539g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 15 Jun 2010
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Reasonable people disagree about the reach of the federal government, but there is near-universal consensus that it should protect us from such dangers as bacteria-infested food, harmful drugs, toxic pollution, crumbling bridges, and unsafe toys. And yet, the agencies that shoulder these responsibilities are in shambles; if they continue to decline, lives will be lost and natural resources will be squandered. In this timely book, Rena Steinzor and Sidney Shapiro take a hard look at the tangled web of problems that have led to this dire state of affairs. It turns out that the agencies are not primarily to blame and that regulatory failure actually stems from a host of overlooked causes. Steinzor and Shapiro discover that unrelenting funding cuts, a breakdown of the legislative process, an increase in the number of political appointees, a concurrent loss of experienced personnel, chaotic White House oversight, and ceaseless political attacks on the bureaucracy all have contributed to the broken system. But while the news is troubling, the authors also propose a host of reforms, including a new model for measuring the success of the agencies and a revitalization of the civil service.
"The People's Agents and the Battle to Protect the American Public" is an urgent and compelling appeal to renew America's best traditions of public service.
Rena Steinzor is professor at the University of Maryland Law School and the author of Mother Earth and Uncle Sam: How Pollution and Hollow Government Hurt Our Kids. Sidney Shapiro is University Chair in Law and associate dean for research and development at Wake Forest University. He is coauthor of several books, including Sophisticated Sabotage: The Intellectual Games Used to Subvert Responsible Regulation.
