Shutting Down Government: The To-Read List
Just one theme this week
Greetings from reassuringly rainy Brussels. At least Belgian weather conforms to expectations.
The To-Read List
In February 1895, Theodore Roosevelt, who had not yet become president, wrote an article for The Atlantic entitled “The Present Status of Civil Service Reform.” At that time, the American government’s civil service operated according to the spoils system, also known as patronage, meaning that whoever is in power gets to fire everyone and appoint his own people, even to menial jobs. Patronage systems, which still exist in much of the world, are both corrupt and corrupting. Officials take bribes in exchange for job appointments; unqualified people, appointed because they are someone’s cousin, produce bad government and bad services; partisan people, appointed because they toe the party line, facilitate graft.
