Making Public Policy Work

In observing politics at the end of the 20th century, former President Reagan described government as “the problem, not the solution.” In her book, Harvard University’s Elaine Kamarck explains that such dissatisfaction with government is in fact a widespread rejection of bureaucracy, occurring in democratic, developing, and communist countries alike.

Kamarck’s The End of Government…As We Know It: Making Public Policy Work (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007) also argues that this revolution in governing brings new challenges, more questions, and a renewed debate over how to make public policy work.

On Thursday, March 1, Brookings hosted a discussion featuring Kamarck, a public policy lecturer at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Brookings Senior Fellow William Galston, and Nonresident Senior Fellow Donald Kettl.