The Best Government & Business Books 2024

1. Trying Hard is Not Good Enough: How to Produce Measurable Improvements for Customers and Communities, Used [Paperback]

The Results-Based Accountability (RBA) framework can be used to improve the quality of life in communities, cities, counties, states and nations, including everything from the well-being of children to the creation of a sustainable environment. It can help government and private sector agencies improve the performance of their programs and make them more customer-friendly and effective. RBA is a common sense approach that replaces all the complicated jargon-laden methods foisted on us in the past. The methods can be learned and applied quickly. And all the materials are free for use by government and non-profit organizations. In addition to providing practical methods, the book also makes a contribution to social theory by explaining the contribution relationship between program performance and community quality of life. As such it is a valuable tool for both program administrators and evaluators. A workshop DVD is also available from resultsleadership.org. The RBA framework has been used in over 40 states and countries around the world.

Trying Hard is Not Good Enough: How to Produce Measurable Improvements for Customers and Communities, Used [Paperback]

2. You Don't Always Get What You Pay for: The Economics of Privatization, Used [Paperback]

Today, nearly all public services--schools, hospitals, prisons, fire departments, sanitation--are considered fair game for privatization. Proponents of privatization argue that private firms will respond to competitive market pressures and provide better service at lower cost. While this assertion has caused much controversy, the debate between both sides has consisted mainly of impassioned defenses of entrenched positions. In You Don't Always Get What You Pay For, Elliott D. Sclar offers a balanced look at the pitfalls and promises of public sector privatization in the United States. By describing the underlying economic dynamics of how public agencies and private organizations actually work together, he provides a rigorous analysis of the assumptions behind the case for privatization. The competitive-market model may seem appealing, but Sclar warns that it does not address the complex reality of contracting for government services. Using specific examples, such as mail service and urban transportation, he shows that ironically privatization does not shrink government--the broader goal of many of its own champions. He also demonstrates that there is more to consider in providing public services than trying to achieve efficiency; there are issues of equity and access that cannot be ignored. Sclar believes that public officials and voters will soon realize the limitations of "contracting out" just as private corporations have come to understand the drawbacks of outsourcing. After examining the effectiveness of alternatives to privatization, he offers suggestions for improving public sector performance--advice he hopes will be heeded before it is too late.

You Don't Always Get What You Pay for: The Economics of Privatization, Used [Paperback]

3. Winning the Influence Game: What Every Business Leader Should Know about Government [Hardcover - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. Play the game to win "More and more CEOs are discovering that managing one's businessenvironment is as important as managing operations, finance, andsales. Winning the Influence Game explains how a strategicgovernment relations program can make a major impact on thatenvironment at the federal, state, and local levels."-Douglas G.Pinkham, President, Public Affairs Council "A useful, detailed handbook that should find itself on thedesktop-or at the bedside-of every business leader. These are theskills that every business leader needs to succeed in theincreasingly complex and rapidly changing globalized economy inwhich they operate-and to gain competitive advantage for theircompany's future."-Ira Jackson, Director, Center for Business andGovernment, John F. Kennedy School of Government "Winning the Influence Game provides an excellent overview for thecorporate leader of how government can impact the bottom line-bothpositively and negatively. The clear, concise, and practical mannerin which the book is organized and information provided makes it anextremely useful resource to those charged with the responsibilityof creating an effective government relations program."-MargeryKraus, President and CEO, APCO Worldwide

Winning the Influence Game : What Every Business Leader Should Know about Government, Used [Hardcover]

4. The Private Provision of Public Services in Developing Countries, Used [Hardcover]

This work examines several different aspects of the major "public" services supplied by the private sector in developing countries: education, electricity, health, telecommunications, urban transportation, and water and sewerage. The author examines the problems, as well as the potential, of private sector involvement, offering in conclusion a discussion of interrelationships between the sectors, obstacles to private sector involvement, and the problem of price equality. The book also includes commentary on the role of the government in relation to each type of service provision.

The Private Provision of Public Services in Developing Countries, Used [Hardcover]

5. How to Sell to the Government: A Step-By-Step Guide to Success [Hardcover - Used]

CONDITION - USED - Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "From the library of" labels or previous owner inscriptions. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. How to Sell to the Government: A Step-By-Step Guide to Success by William A. Cohen

How to Sell to the Government: A Step-By-Step Guide to Success, Used [Hardcover]

6. Uncle Sam, the monopoly man, Used [Hardcover]

Review: Uncle Sam, the monopoly man Editorial Review - Kirkus Reviews This book signals that growing merger between the forces of conservatism and radicalism in the face of an unwieldy bureaucratic technocracy. Wooldridge's argument is that Uncle Sam is an incompetent administrator of many of his citizens' dally affairs. He takes the traditional view that the incentives of individual competition inspire the highest human motivation. Wooldridge examines various public institutions such as the Post Office, schools, law enforcement agencies, and justice system, and he attempts to show how private endeavor in these areas has historically proved not only more efficient but more equitable as well. Where the U.S. Post Office has bungled the mails at great financial loss, he asserts, private businessmen have carried them swiftly and reliably for fun and profit. Public schools' centralized mess has failed one black drop-out after another, but the Urban League's privately endowed Street Academy caters especially to ghetto kids' needs and thereby salvages their chance for success. When the public police monopoly is negligent or abusive of its powers, the Black Panthers or the Jewish Defense League are fully entitled if not obliged to assume the responsibility of protection of their communities. Wooldridge's belief is that the consensus view of the ""public interest"" must yield to a pluralistic interest approach. The style here is often tedious if not deadly, but he argues rigorously and provides substantial documentation.

Uncle Sam, the monopoly man, Used [Hardcover]

7. Anticorruption in Transition : A Contribution to the Policy Debate, Used [Paperback]

The old Russian saying of 'kto kovo' (Who will get whom?) has become 'kem skhvachena eto?' (Who has captured this?) under the new transition economy. Instead of one major figure, such as a Stalin or Lenin, vanquishing lesser personages to advance their political aims, many people are taking over corporations to increase their market domination. Their methods are no less brutal, ruthless, or corrupt. In turn, corporations are 'capturing' the state to influence legislation and regulation to their advantage. The advantages for the corporations create disadvantages for the general public and the poor in particular. In many countries, the public perceives corruption to be woven into the basic institutional framework, undermining governance, and weakening the credibility of the state. Recognizing that corruption is one of the most serious obstacles to development, the World Bank has made combating it a central institutional priority. This report analyzes corruption across transition countries and its potential repercussions on their country strategy. The report places primary emphasis on the distinction between state capture and administrative corruption while presenting strategies to avoid both forms of corruption. These strategies recognize and address distinctions in the levels and patterns of corruption in transition countries.

Anticorruption in Transition : A Contribution to the Policy Debate, Used [Paperback]

8. Social Value Investing : A Management Framework for Effective Partnerships, Used [Hardcover]

Social Value Investing presents a new way to approach some of society's most difficult and intractable challenges. Although many of our world's problems may seem too great and too complex to solve -- inequality, climate change, affordable housing, corruption, healthcare, food insecurity -- solutions to these challenges do exist, and will be found through new partnerships bringing together leaders from the public, private, and philanthropic sectors. In their new book, Howard W. Buffett and William B. Eimicke present a five-point management framework for developing and measuring the success of such partnerships. Inspired by value investing -- one of history's most successful investment paradigms -- this framework provides tools to maximize collaborative efficiency and positive social impact, so that major public programs can deliver innovative, inclusive, and long-lasting solutions. It also offers practical insights for any private sector CEO, public sector administrator, or nonprofit manager hoping to build successful cross-sector collaborations. Social Value Investing tells the compelling stories of cross-sector partnerships from around the world -- Central Park and the High Line in New York City, community-led economic development in Afghanistan, and improved public services in cities across Brazil. Drawing on lessons and observations from a broad selections of collaborations, this book combines real life stories with detailed analysis, resulting in a blueprint for effective, sustainable partnerships that serve the public interest. Readers also gain access to original, academic case material and professionally produced video documentaries for every major partnerships profiled -- bringing to life the people and stories in a way that few other business or management books have done.

Social Value Investing : A Management Framework for Effective Partnerships, Used [Hardcover]

9. The Corporate State and the Broker State : The du Ponts and American National Politics, 1925-1940, Used [Hardcover]

The du Ponts, one of the most powerful families in American industry, actively fought the policies that gave government more and more power over the economy. It was not centralization they opposed--indeed, the New Deal initially gained their favor because it appeared to promise a "corporate state" administered along the same lines as a business organization--but the sharing, or brokering, of power among various political interests. If government was to direct the economy, they felt, it should be in the hands of proven business leaders such as themselves. The du Pont brothers and their close colleague, John Raskob, first tried their hand at political action by waging a campaign against prohibition, which they said intruded upon the liberty of all citizens, raised taxes, and hampered the economy. It was this issue, and the management of public schools, that prompted the industrialists to propose business-style administrative bodies in government. To further this goal the du Ponts became increasingly active in the Democratic Party, especially the presidential campaigns from 1928 to 1940. With the repeal of prohibition and the creation of the National Recovery Administration, the New Deal at first looked promising to the du Ponts. But they contested the emerging broker state--one that legitimated the rival claims of competing interests and maintained dual structures of public and private economic governance--of the late 1930s. When the chance for national political management by a private, centralized industrial hierarchy and corporatism failed to gain a hold in the American polity, the du Ponts joined forces with the opposition. They backed the supposedly nonpartisan Liberty League with the intention of organizing a grass-roots protest of the incursion of government into peoples' lives and the increasing power of the executive branch. But the League received little popular support and survived only by the contributions of disaffected business leaders. Throughout these turbulent years the du Ponts kept up an active correspondence; rarely does the historian have access to such extensive personal as well as official records. By focusing on one family's contribution to the economic and political debate between the world wars, Robert Burk casts light on the changing fortunes of business and government in twentieth-century America. In so doing, he modifies some of our popular conceptions about the 1920s and 1930s.

The Corporate State and the Broker State : The du Ponts and American National Politics, 1925-1940, Used [Hardcover]