What Washington Gets Wrong: The Unelected Officials Who Actually Run the Government and Their Misconceptions about the American People

What Washington Gets Wrong: The Unelected Officials Who Actually Run the Government and Their Misconceptions about the American People

What Washington Gets Wrong: The Unelected Officials Who Actually Run the Government and Their Misconceptions about the American People

What Washington Gets Wrong: The Unelected Officials Who Actually Run the Government and Their Misconceptions about the American People

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Overview

Each year unelected federal administrators write thousands of regulations possessing the force of law. What do these civil servants know about the American people whom they ostensibly serve? Not much, according to this enlightening and disturbing study. The authors surveyed federal agency officials, congressional and White House staffers, and employees of various policy-making organizations about their attitudes toward and knowledge of the public. They found a significant chasm between what official Washington assumes they know about average Americans and the actual opinions and attitudes of American citizens. Even in such basic areas as life circumstances (e.g., income levels, employment, racial makeup) the surveys revealed surprising inaccuracies. And when it comes to policy issues—on such crucial issues as defense, crime, social security, welfare, public education, and the environment—officials' perceptions of the public's knowledge and positions are often wide of the mark. Compounding this ignorance is a pervasive attitude of smug dismissiveness toward the citizenry and little sense of accountability. As a result, bureaucrats tend to follow their own preferences without much reference to the opinions of the public.The authors conclude with recommendations to narrow the gap between official perceptions of the American public and the actual facts. These include shorter terms, rotation from the Washington beltway to local offices, compulsory training in the responsibilities of public office, and better civic education for ordinary citizens in the realities of government and politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781633882492
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 10/04/2016
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Bachner is the Director of the Master of Science in Government Analytics at Johns Hopkins University. Her recent report, Predictive Policing: Preventing Crime with Data and Analytics, has been published by the IBM Center for the Business of Government. She is also the coeditor (with Kathryn Wagner Hill and Benjamin Ginsberg) of Analytics, Policy and Governance (forthcoming). As an expert on government analytics and political behavior, she has been quoted and/or cited in the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times, Roll Call, and other publications.

Benjamin Ginsberg is the David Bernstein Professor of Political Science and Chair of Governmental Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Presidential Government; The Worth of War; The Value of Violence; How the Jews Defeated Hitler: Exploding the Myth of Jewish Passivity in the Face of Nazism; and other works.

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Chapter 1 Unelected Government: The Folks Who Really Run Things 19

Chapter 2 The Chasm between Us and Them 47

Chapter 3 What Those Who Govern Really Think about You and Me 87

Chapter 4 What the Government Does versus What the People Want 135

Chapter 5 What Should Be Done to Make the Government Listen? 159

Chapter 6 What If What Should Be Done Isn't Done? 193

Appendix A 205

Appendix B 207

Appendix C 209

Notes 245

Index 267

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