Customer Reviews

The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance

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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.