Choice Review

A lively and well-organized collection with contributions from a dozen scholars of public administration, this book explores the relations between politicians and bureaucrats, bureaucratic professionalism, and the differences between parliamentary and presidential systems. These themes are explored comparatively and historically by well-known scholars. Most of the pieces are timely and provocative; they grapple with the politics/administration relationship in modern states including the US, Great Britain, India, and some Latin American countries. Discussions of downsizing, market models for governments, "managerialism," and professionalism are intellectually stimulating. As with any collection, focus on the announced themes varies in intensity from article to article. There is a tendency to lump all professionals who are civil servants into one general category. Although some of the pieces refer to some specialization, the collection might have been more interesting had it dealt, say, with the relationship of scientists to state bureaucracies in comparative perspective; but this is a minor point. Overall, this excellent volume is enthusiastically recommended for every library with a public administration and comparative government collection. E. Lewis; New College of the University of South Florida