The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance [Hardcover]

Lester M. Salamon (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195136659 | ISBN-13: 978-0195136654 | Publication Date: February 22, 2002

The Tools of Government is the first professional guide to the principles and practices of public administration in an age when governments no longer provide many services--but arrange for others to do so. Characterized by extensive collaboration among levels of government and between government and the private sector, this new approach to solving public problems presents many new important issues.
Comprehensive in scope, this new book offers a first hand look at the challenges faced by contracting out to nonprofit and profit sectors for grants, insurance, regulation, vouchers, cooperative arrangements, tax data, grants-in-aid, and others. The chapters examine over 20 different tools in use today and summarizes their basic features, patterns of usage, key tasks, political and substantive rational, and the major management challenges that each one poses.
International in coverage and application, this book is ideal for students, teachers, and scholars in public administration, management, public policy, economics, political science, and nonprofit management; managers and heads of state, local, and federal agencies; executives in foundations and other nonprofit organizations; and academic, government, and research libraries.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"offers a valuable and systematic way of evaluating alternative forms of program and service delivery. The tools framework will help us better measure government performance and understand what works."--Jonathan Breul, formerly Senior Specialist for Management, U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Currently Senior Analyst, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

"brings to light the accountability challenges that arise as systems become more and more complex and citizens are additional steps away from governance structures."--Scott Fosler, Professor, University of Maryland School of Public Affairs and former President, National Academy of Public Administration

"captures the increased complexity of instrument choice, as well as the innovations that have taken place in instrument design and implementation in recent decades not only in the United States, but also in other parts of the world."--Margaret Hill, Policy Research Initiative, Canada

"provides a solid framework for developing and understanding the new public-private arrangements that will be required for homeland security and regional governance, among other complex issues."--Neal Peirce, The Washington Post Writers Group

"Salamon et. al.'s Tools of Government book is an extremely useful resource for teaching."--Eugene Bardach, University of California at Berkeley

"Teachers of all types of policy classes, including economics and management, can usefully integrate the tools framework into their lessons."--Eugene Bardach, University of California at Berkeley

"helps us focus attention on the considerable innovativeness that has characterized the public sector in our lifetime."--Edward DeSeve, University of Maryland School of Public Affairs

"the tools approach should really drive government towards better tool selection, and better overall performance."--Mark Abramson, PriceWaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government

"Lawyers have been relying on the tools approach since the Middle Ages, and it has worked for them...This book opens this approach up for public administrators and policy analysts, and they would be wise to seize it. It is a very powerful approach."--Sallyanne Payton, University of Michigan Law School

About the Author

Lester M. Salamon is at Johns Hopkins University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195136659
• ISBN-13: 978-0195136654
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.4 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Government     > Public Affairs & Administration
  • #63 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Nonprofit Organizations & Charities

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tools, tools, and more tools, December 25, 2006

By 

Steven A. Peterson (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL)) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance (Hardcover)

Lester Salamon's edited book, "The Tools of Government," is an immensely useful work that identifies the various tools that government has today to effect its goals. Government policy-making has changed in recent decades. Now, problem solving by the public sector is not carried out by government alone. Nonprofits and the private sector have become involved, too. As Salamon notes (page vii): "Largely overlooked. . .has been the extent to which actual public problem solving has come to embrace the collaborative actions of governments at multiple levels and both government and private institutions."

A table on page 3 well illustrates this thesis. This table shows that:

(1) In social service delivery, 56% of services are delivered by nonprofits, 4% by for-profits, and 40% by government.

(2) In health, 44% of services are delivered by nonprofits, 23% by for-profits, and 33% by government. And so on. In reality, public service delivery is a complex mixture of government and non-governmental actors.

This volume describes the various tools used by those who deliver services--from economic regulation to government corporations to vouchers to grants to loans to tort liability to contracting and so on. The point is simple: there are many tools that can be used to achieve public goals--whether those services are actually delivered by the private sector, not-for-profits, or government itself.

However, tools are not developed and deployed in a vacuum. This volume also discusses the use of such tools in democracy and the nature of the politics of tool use. Also well discussed is accountability of the nonprofit, for-profit, and governmental sectors.

In the end, a well worthwhile book for those interested in how government decisions and priorities become implemented and services delivered. The book is not elegantly written, but there is much content here.