Background
Donahue, John David was born on June 17, 1956 in Alexandria, Indiana, United States. Son of Thomas Edward and Judith Ann (Wheatley) Donahue.
( The widening of the gap between the rich and the poor s...)
The widening of the gap between the rich and the poor since the early 1970s has been well documented. Relatively little attention has been paid, however, to whether the devolution of governmental responsibilities from the federal to state level will simplify or complicate efforts to alleviate inequality. In this report, John D. Donahue analyzes devolution from the standpoint of four realms of public policy: workplace laws, education and job training, antipoverty efforts, and taxes. Policymakers attempting to improve life for Americans at the lower end of the income ladder are apt to consider using tools available in each of those areas. But, largely because of devolution, Donahue concludes, the effectiveness of those tools in addressing inequality is likely to be weakened
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870784285/?tag=2022091-20
( American government is in trouble. It seems to cost mor...)
American government is in trouble. It seems to cost more, deliver less, and inspire deeper cynicism year by year. Some say the only solution is to shrink the public sector down to a competent core. Others call for restructuring, reinvention, and reform at the federal level. But the most popular prescription is to shift the public sector's center of gravity away from Washington and toward the separate states. Democrats and Republicans alike have celebrated devolution as a return to America's Federalist roots, a spur to efficiency, and a remedy for the rigidity, waste, and arrogance that alienate citizens from their government. They contend that the fifty state governmentssmall, flexible, close to the people,” and disciplined by competitionwill be more efficient and more responsive than the lumbering federal bureaucracy.But will devolution deliver? In Disunited States, John D. Donahue contends that despite its broad appeal, letting Washington fade and the states take the lead is a dubious strategy for reform. It reflects a misreading of America's history, a warped view of its bedrock values, and a false analogy to the virtues of competition and decentralization in the private sector. At worst, he argues, America's willing disintegration within an integrating world economy will be recorded among history's monumental follies. At best, devolution will prove to be a detour on America's path to renewal.Donahue shows that shifting power toward the states will do much less than advocates promise to boost efficiency and accelerate innovationand much more than they admit to undercut national interests and corrode America's sense of commonwealth. Addressing controversial topics as diverse as welfare reform, school funding, legalized gambling, and interstate bidding for business investment, he weaves a coherent case that isolated action by competitive state governments, not excessive centralization, poses the graver threat to Americans' most cherished goals. The ascendancy of the states cannot relieve us of the need to confront our problemsgrowing inequality, eroding trust in government, and an imperiled middleclass cultureas a nation.Indeed, the proponents of shifting power to the states fail to account for the fact that America retains national interests and national values that will get short shrift in an unregulated environment where states accelerate their competition to attract business investment and capital while simultaneously competing to reduce the costs of social welfare programs.The genius of the founders was to forge a single vital nation out of the several separate states, and Disunited States reveals that the road to national divisionthe road not taken by Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson, or Washingtonmay turn out to lead us not toward restored greatness, but away from it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465016618/?tag=2022091-20
( What government activities should be contracted out to ...)
What government activities should be contracted out to private companies? This thoughtful book by a Harvard policy analyst shuns global answers and explores how to examine individual cases.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465063578/?tag=2022091-20
( Government has become a refuge, and a relic, of Americ...)
Government has become a refuge, and a relic, of America’s crumbling middle-class economy. As the public and private worlds of work have veered in different directions, the gaps between them are warping government work in unintended ways. Three decades of economic turbulence have rendered American workplaces more demanding and less secure, more rewarding for high-end workers and punishing for workers without advanced skills. This workplace revolution, however, has largely bypassed government. Public employees—representing roughly one-sixth of the total workforce—still work under the conditions of dampened risk and constrained opportunity that marked most of the economy during the middle-class boom following World War II. The divergent paths of public and private employment have intensified a long-standing pattern: elite workers spurn public jobs, while less skilled workers cling to government work as a refuge from a harsh private economy. The first trend creates a chronic talent deficit in the public sector. The second trend makes the government workplace rigid and resistant to change. And both contribute to shortfalls in public-sector performance. The Warping of Government Work documents government’s isolation from the rest of the American economy and arrays the stark choices we confront for narrowing, or accommodating, the divide between public and private work.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674027884/?tag=2022091-20
educator federal agency administrator
Donahue, John David was born on June 17, 1956 in Alexandria, Indiana, United States. Son of Thomas Edward and Judith Ann (Wheatley) Donahue.
Bachelor, Indiana University, 1979. Master in Public Policy, Harvard University, 1982. Doctor of Philosophy, Harvard University, 1987.
Assistant professor to associate professor Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987—1993. Assistant secretary United States Department Labor, Washington, 1993—1994, counselor to secretary, 1994—1995. Associate professor public policy Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1995—1999, Raymond Vernon lecturer in public policy, since 1999.
Director Weil Program on Collaborative Governance, since 2003, faculty chairman healthcare delivery program, since 2007, faculty chairman curriculum development and support, since 2007. Economic consultant, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1985-2002. Advisory committee on shareholder responsibiity, Harvard University, since 1998.
( What government activities should be contracted out to ...)
( What government activities should be contracted out to ...)
( The widening of the gap between the rich and the poor s...)
( Government has become a refuge, and a relic, of Americ...)
( American government is in trouble. It seems to cost mor...)
(When Chrysler was at the top.)
(Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include compa...)
Advisor Clinton presidential transition, Washington, 1993. Founding trustee, Francis Parker Essential Charter School, since 1994.
Married Margaret Ann Pax, August 23, 1986. Children: Kathleen, Benedict.