Jennifer Pahlka’s new book Recoding America tackles the reality that government frequently fails to deliver the quality services that citizens expect and shows how we can do better.
Thanks for this pointer - glad to be listening to the interview! Shared with the ISSIP.org community which has a great interest in digital service - including service to citizens.
Thanks for the recommendation. I will look it up. Maybe you remember 'The 5th risk' by Michael Lewis. It shows how the Trump regime systematically tried to destroy some of the agency delivering vital services. I think this goes deeper, though. Given the constant (political) pressure people in public service are under, one wonders why anybody would devote their lives to these thankless tasks...
Yes. Pahlka doesn't say much about the efforts within Trump's administration to destroy the capability to deliver services. She's focused on the massive problems of delivering good services in government even when everyone involved wants to do a great job. Her detailed analysis of California's struggles to deliver unemployment benefits to many more people than usual during the pandemic is quite enlightening. She repeatedly points out how the California employees were working very hard to ramp up to the needs driven by the pandemic but their systems and culture made it nearly impossible.
One of the most interesting thoughts in the book is that one of the reasons that conservatives find many government programs oppressive is because of the burden put on people who try to use them. Well worth reading.
Thanks for this pointer - glad to be listening to the interview! Shared with the ISSIP.org community which has a great interest in digital service - including service to citizens.
Thanks for the recommendation. I will look it up. Maybe you remember 'The 5th risk' by Michael Lewis. It shows how the Trump regime systematically tried to destroy some of the agency delivering vital services. I think this goes deeper, though. Given the constant (political) pressure people in public service are under, one wonders why anybody would devote their lives to these thankless tasks...
Yes. Pahlka doesn't say much about the efforts within Trump's administration to destroy the capability to deliver services. She's focused on the massive problems of delivering good services in government even when everyone involved wants to do a great job. Her detailed analysis of California's struggles to deliver unemployment benefits to many more people than usual during the pandemic is quite enlightening. She repeatedly points out how the California employees were working very hard to ramp up to the needs driven by the pandemic but their systems and culture made it nearly impossible.
One of the most interesting thoughts in the book is that one of the reasons that conservatives find many government programs oppressive is because of the burden put on people who try to use them. Well worth reading.