Description:
This book is about upper echelon career bureaucrats--the people who manage federal agencies and who develop and implement public policy--and how they responded to Ronald Reagan's application of the administrative presidency in their agencies during the 1980s. By delving deeply into the particular details of Reagan's intervention into the affairs of upper-level career civil servants, Golden also improves our understanding of bureaucratic behavior in general.
Review Quotes: "A conceptually sophisticated and thoroughly researched book that adds substantially to our knowledge of the character and the determinants of administrative responsiveness.... I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the role played by bureaucracy in American government." -- "Political Science Quarterly"