Decay and the Battle to Redefine Capacity Capacities

M. Ernita Joaquin and Thomas J. Greitens ()
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M. Ernita Joaquin: San Francisco State University
Thomas J. Greitens: Central Michigan University

Chapter Chapter 7 in American Administrative Capacity, 2021, pp 153-194 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The book opened with a narrative of capacity failures in five dimensions to confront a public health crisis. Subsequently, we framed the ebb and flow of capacity based on an understanding of reform movements, identifying the seeds of decline as capacity in the federal government was established and controlled throughout history. This chapter describes the deconstructive forces of the Trump era that accelerated the decline of capacity toward decay, judging by the chaos of the pandemic response. But beyond the pandemic, the deconstruction movement should be seen as intricately tied to the efforts to redefine capacity for the future through the most radical reform initiatives since Nixon’s time. Even as those reforms fizzled out, they are consistent with the unitary executive’s rise in appropriating sole command of the bureaucracy and defining capacity accordingly.

Keywords: Bifurcation; Disinvestment; Delegitimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-030-80564-7_7

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-80564-7_7

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