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People always debate American citizens right to have guns. I think this debate should be looked differently. Restrictions on the amount of ammunition you can have per weapon. Say a person has a handgun. They can have a limit of 10 bullets. A record is then kept of the bullets serial number and you must present the empty magazine before another limited supply is allowed. All serial numbers on bullets and magazines so they are traceable and make it a federal offence to sell on these bullets elsewhere. Am not an expert on the subject matter.
Is this the solution to US gun crime?
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What Guys Said 4
just make bullets at home.
make your own gun too.00|00|0
It's scary that can be done
just do some 3d printed lol.
yes its scary, weapons will never go away. better have some yourself just in case.
If you present an empty magazine, how can the dealer be sure that you have already used the bullets you had?10|10|0
Change the way people think.00|00|0
10 bullets won't get you to far at the gun range.
I always said the size of the clip (10). The average citizen does not need an extended clip or a banana clip for a AR15 etc.00|00|0
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Del Vento
Del Vento: Quick-Stop Italian in Nasr City's Genena Mall
Salma Tantawi
If you're
familiar with malls' food courts during or around lunch time, then you probably
have an idea of how crowded they can get. Luckily, you seldom become involved
in a chair hunt at the new food court in Genena Mall; which provides a quiet
place away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the mall to choose a meal
from the handful of fast food vendors. One of these choices is the Italian restaurant
Del Vento.
Though Del
Vento's menu is as predictable as the next Italian restaurant – packed with
sandwiches and salads, pizzas, and pastas – they are a little more diverse when
it comes to the desserts and drinks section. Fruit smoothies (14LE), frappes
(16LE) and hot drinks make Del Vento as much a quick–stop café as a restaurant.
In a dark
wood and olive coloured interior, ordering at Del Vento was simple and fast.
The food was neatly packed, though it might be worth to note that their paper
bags don't hold up that well for take-outs. For an original Del Vento
experience, we opted for their signature mini pizza (12LE) along with the fried
calamari starter (12LE) and a chicken mozzarella Panini (17LE). Though the
toppings of the mysterious Del Vento pizza weren't clarified on the menu, it
turns out that it's mainly tomato sauce and cheese with hotdog slices and it tasted
delicious enough to make it the restaurant's special.
The fried
calamari, however, lacked a bit of taste despite having a rather strong aroma.
Be careful as it comes with extra hot dipping sauce. The Panini was really the
highlight of the meal, which came with a small portion of French fries, though
the chicken was a bit too ordinary to be noticed and, like the calamari,
required adding salt and pepper.
Their food
might need a little tweaking here and there but at least the pizza was good. Take
another look at the menu after your meal because Del Vento proves promising with
its many dessert choices; from blueberry cheesecake (16LE) to Nutella and
banana crepe (13LE) and a choice of milkshakes. It's probably safe to say that
if there was to be a next visit to Del Vento, it would just be for their

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Paul Light
Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service
295 Lafayette Street
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012
Dr. Paul C. Light is NYU Wagner's Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service and founding principal investigator of the Global Center for Public Service, Before joining NYU, Dr. Light served as the Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, founding director of its Center for Public Service, and vice president and director of the Governmental Studies Program. He has served previously as director of the Public Policy Program at the Pew Charitable Trusts and associate dean and professor of public affairs at the University of Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
Light is the author of 25 books, including works on social entrepreneurship, the nonprofit sector, federal government reform, public service, and the baby boom. His most recent book is Government by Investigation: Presidents, Congress, and the Search for Answers, 1945-2012 (2014). His award winning books include The President's Agenda: Domestic Policy Choice from Kennedy to Clinton (1998), Thickening Government: Federal Hierarchy and the Diffusion of Accountability (1995), The Tides of Reform: Making Government Work, 1945-1995 (1997), and A Government Ill Executed: The Decline of the Federal Service and How to Reverse It 2008). A Government Ill Executed received the American Political Science Association's Herbert Simon Award for the most important book on public administration in the preceding three-to-five years upon publication. Light is also a co-author of a best-selling American government textbook, Government by the People. His research interests include: bureaucracy, civil service, Congress, entitlement programs, executive branch, government reform, nonprofit effectiveness, organizational change, and the political appointment process.
This course is designed to help students understand and make their own mark in today's revolution in how to innovate. Although the world still needs dedicated innovators of all kinds to create the new combinations of ideas for solving to difficult social problems, this course is based on the notion that durable social change depends on five tools for innovating in how to innovate: (1) innovative social exploring to call others to action and identify the root cause that needs to be addressed, (2) innovative social finance to leverage existing funding toward high-impact investment (and divestment) and create innovative ways to prospect for funding and impact, (3) innovative social design to collect ideas that might be pieced together to redress a seemingly intractable problem and combine, test, and launch those ideas, (4) innovative social advocacy to frame the debate in favor of the specific innovation and codify these ideas for sustainable implementation, and (5) innovative social delivery to scale new combinations of ideas to maximum effect, and operate at scale through strong organizations that change as needed to produce impact and defend it from inevitable opposition.
Just because we need innovations in these tools does not mean that existing methods are no longer needed—the key is to find ways to fine-tune what we already have to make it work as effectively as possible in an ever-changing ecosystem. The course will ask students to explore these tools using their own experience and concerns as a frame for viewing innovations in how to innovate as essential to their own success in changing the world as it is today into the world as they think it should become.
This course is designed to help students understand and make their own mark in solving the social problems that plague today's world. This course is based on the notion that durable social change depends on the five basic tools for social innovation: (1) social exploring to call others to action and identify the root cause that needs to be addressed, (2) social finance to leverage existing funding toward high-impact investment and fundraising, (3) social design to collect and combine ideas to redress a seemingly intractable problem, (4) social advocacy to frame the debate in favor of the specific innovation and codify these ideas for sustainable implementation, and (5) social delivery to scale new combinations of ideas to maximum effect, and operate at scale. Students will be introduced to the five tools, examine their use in producing social impact, explore their own engagement in designing new combinations of ideas as social entrepreneurs, and develop their own ideas for addressing a social problem of concern to them. Students will have the opportunity to examine real-world organizations that engage in social impact, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and develop their own understanding about which tools find what problems, and how they can exploit the power of social innovation to produce lasting effects in changing the world as it is today into the world that each student believe could and must be in the future.
This course is designed to help students understand and make their own mark in today's revolution in how to innovate. Although the world still needs dedicated innovators of all kinds to create the new combinations of ideas for solving to difficult social problems, this course is based on the notion that durable social change depends on five tools for innovating in how to innovate: (1) innovative social exploring to call others to action and identify the root cause that needs to be addressed, (2) innovative social finance to leverage existing funding toward high-impact investment (and divestment) and create innovative ways to prospect for funding and impact, (3) innovative social design to collect ideas that might be pieced together to redress a seemingly intractable problem and combine, test, and launch those ideas, (4) innovative social advocacy to frame the debate in favor of the specific innovation and codify these ideas for sustainable implementation, and (5) innovative social delivery to scale new combinations of ideas to maximum effect, and operate at scale through strong organizations that change as needed to produce impact and defend it from inevitable opposition.
Just because we need innovations in these tools does not mean that existing methods are no longer needed—the key is to find ways to fine-tune what we already have to make it work as effectively as possible in an ever-changing ecosystem. The course will ask students to explore these tools using their own experience and concerns as a frame for viewing innovations in how to innovate as essential to their own success in changing the world as it is today into the world as they think it should become.
This course is designed to help students understand and make their own mark in solving the social problems that plague today's world. This course is based on the notion that durable social change depends on the five basic tools for social innovation: (1) social exploring to call others to action and identify the root cause that needs to be addressed, (2) social finance to leverage existing funding toward high-impact investment and fundraising, (3) social design to collect and combine ideas to redress a seemingly intractable problem, (4) social advocacy to frame the debate in favor of the specific innovation and codify these ideas for sustainable implementation, and (5) social delivery to scale new combinations of ideas to maximum effect, and operate at scale. Students will be introduced to the five tools, examine their use in producing social impact, explore their own engagement in designing new combinations of ideas as social entrepreneurs, and develop their own ideas for addressing a social problem of concern to them. Students will have the opportunity to examine real-world organizations that engage in social impact, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and develop their own understanding about which tools find what problems, and how they can exploit the power of social innovation to produce lasting effects in changing the world as it is today into the world that each student believe could and must be in the future.
September 11 brought a dramatic surge in what Americans expected of themselves and their civic institutions. Americans reported increased interest in all aspects of public life, including voting, volunteering, and careers in government. Three years later, however, the interest has yet to produce a parallel increase in civic activity. This course will provide undergraduate students an opportunity to examine the promise of public service embedded in American history and contemporary events, while exploring the perils of participation that may explain the public's reluctance to actually engage. The course will also explore competing definitions of public service, as well as proposals for increasing civic engagement through various forms of national service, including the draft. The course will feature occasional guest lectures by leading public servants in New York City, as well as student research on just what public service means today.
This course is designed to help students understand and make their own mark in today's revolution in how to innovate. Although the world still needs dedicated innovators of all kinds to create the new combinations of ideas for solving to difficult social problems, this course is based on the notion that durable social change depends on five tools for innovating in how to innovate: (1) innovative social exploring to call others to action and identify the root cause that needs to be addressed, (2) innovative social finance to leverage existing funding toward high-impact investment (and divestment) and create innovative ways to prospect for funding and impact, (3) innovative social design to collect ideas that might be pieced together to redress a seemingly intractable problem and combine, test, and launch those ideas, (4) innovative social advocacy to frame the debate in favor of the specific innovation and codify these ideas for sustainable implementation, and (5) innovative social delivery to scale new combinations of ideas to maximum effect, and operate at scale through strong organizations that change as needed to produce impact and defend it from inevitable opposition.
Just because we need innovations in these tools does not mean that existing methods are no longer needed—the key is to find ways to fine-tune what we already have to make it work as effectively as possible in an ever-changing ecosystem. The course will ask students to explore these tools using their own experience and concerns as a frame for viewing innovations in how to innovate as essential to their own success in changing the world as it is today into the world as they think it should become.
The 2016 presidential election will likely feature two tough questions about government reform, writes Paul C. Light. First, should the next president cut federal programs to reduce the power of government, or maintain existing programs to deal with important problems? Second, should the next president winnow the federal agenda to a smaller set of priorities, or accept the current priorities and focus on reducing federal inefficiency?
Government by the People provides a thorough, Constitution-based introduction to the foundational principles, processes, and institutions of American government. Throughout, authors David Magleby, Paul Light, and Christine Nemacheck highlight the central role that people play in a constitutional democracy, inspiring students to see how similarities and differences in political beliefs continue to shape government to this day. The 2014 Elections and Updates Edition includes coverage of the major issues in today's headlines to engage students in learning, as well as to boost the relevance of course material to students' lives.
In this research paper, Paul C. Light writes that the "first step in preventing future failures is to find a reasonable set of past failures that might yield lessons for repair." To meet this goal, Light asks four key questions about past federal government failures: (1) where did government fail, (2) why did government fail, (3) who caused the failures, and (4) what can be done to fix the underlying problems?
Surveying the 100 most significant Congressional and presidential investigations of executive branch breakdowns between 1945 and 2012, Paul Light offers insight into those qualities that compose an "investigation done right." Light's research provides data into the quantity and quality of investigatory efforts in the modern era, as well as what these patterns reveal about what investigators can do to increase the odds that their work will pay off in improved government performance and more effective public policy.
Presidential and congressional investigations are particularly powerful tools for asking tough questions about highly visible, often complex government breakdowns, including: communist infiltration of government 1950s, the Vietnam War during the 1960s, Watergate and Central Intelligence Agency abuses during the 1970s, among 96 others covered in Government by Investigation, by Paul Light. Light, one of America's premier authorities on public service and management, provides a deep assessment of what he has identified as the federal government's one hundred most significant investigations since World War II.
"These 10 articles from leading scholars address federal government activism in such areas as health, education, transportation, and the arts. In some areas, federal involvement has been direct; for example, while school public systems are governed locally, Washington provides about 10% of k–12 funding. Similarly, antipoverty programs, such as the New Deal's Social Security Act and Aid for Dependent Children, have played a major role in reducing the poverty rate from around 40% in 1900 to 11.2% in 1974. At other times, Washington has exerted influence more subtly, through regulations and research. Examples include the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which mandated the separation of investment and commercial banking and the WWII-era research that yielded compounds to prevent and cure malaria, syphilis, and tuberculosis. Further, as public policy scholar Paul C. Light points out in a fascinating concluding piece, more than two-thirds of leading governmental initiatives have been supported by both Democratic and Republican administrations. However, Light adds, the massive tax cut in 2001 "continue[s] to constrain federal investment in problem solving." The scholars brought together by Ohio State historian Conn (History's Shadow) persuasively demonstrate how the growth of "big government" throughout the 20th century has benefited ordinary Americans so comprehensively and unobtrusively that they have often taken it for granted."
Publishers Weekly
Public administration scholars answer the question: What might Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison, who between October 1787 and August 1788 penned the Federalist Papers promoting ratification of the U.S. Constitution, add now to the pamphlets, in view of changes in the administration of our government over the past two and a quarter centuries? Are these foundational essays still relevant? How might key pamphlets be updated to reflect new realities?
Federalist No. 85 offers a synopsis of the overall case for the Constitution. Describing the dangers of a nation without a national government as an "awful spectacle," the paper provides a rebuttal to the active opposition to ratification. Focusing entirely on the operations of government, this essay examines contemporary challenges to faithfully executing the laws and offers an analysis of comprehensive reforms for creating greater accountability, efficiency, and productivity.
Has the role of the social entrepreneur been glorified as the primary driver of social breakthrough? Have we neglected the important role that all change agents play? What must be done to create the networks that create so many breakthroughs? How does the breakthrough cycle actually work? How do we strengthen the infrastructure that supports social change organizations in their quest? Driving Social Change is the ultimate introduction to the many steps needed to challenge and replace the prevailing wisdom.
Based on the latest research from author, professor, and Washington Post online columnist Paul C. Light, Driving Social Change confronts head-on the seemingly eternal questions of solving tough, even intractable, social problems. Starting with the definition of social entrepreneurship as a powerful driver of social change, it goes well beyond the concept to a more detailed assessment of the "breakthrough" cycle with several other drivers. Along the way, the book focuses on the need to protect past social breakthroughs from complacency and counterattack.
If our purpose is to change the world, writes Light, we must concentrate on every driver possible, not just the ones we can see. To that end, the book highlights alternative paths to creating social breakthrough and provides actionable advice, exploring:
-Strategies to broaden the definition of social entrepreneurship
-Tactics to build strong social organizations and networks
-Dynamic methods to respond to constant economic and social change
-The journey from initial commitment to a world of justice and opportunity
As much as social entrepreneurship is a wondrous, inspirational act, even more extraordinary is the creation of durable social impact through whatever means necessary. Driving Social Change tells us that we should be less concerned about the tools of agitation and more concerned about the disruption and replacement of the status quo.
Holding old mindsets up to the light of day, this timely book unflinchingly addresses the change process and challenges us to question our beliefs about how it really works.
In March 2009, the RAND Frederick S. Pardee Center for Longer Range Global Policy and the Future Human Condition hosted a workshop called "Shaping Tomorrow Today: Near-Term Steps Towards Long-Term Goals." The workshop gave policymakers and analysts an opportunity to explore new methods and tools that can help improve long-term decisionmaking. The intent was to conduct this exploration collaboratively, drawing from many countries a mixed group of tool builders, analysts, planners, decisionmakers and interested lay observers. Their task was to consider how analysts and policymakers can determine when it is important to make long-term (as opposed to short-term) decisions, how to make better long-term decisions, and how best to support policymakers in thinking long term, using as case studies the areas of education, international policy, and climate change. These conference proceedings summarize the main discussions and presentations that took place during the two days of the workshop and include the papers written for workshop participants. They will be of interest to anyone engaged in the study and practice of thinking and acting meaningfully over the long term, with particular reference to problems faced by planners and policymakers in public institutions of governance.
The federal government is having increasing difficulty faithfully executing the laws, which is what Alexander Hamilton called "the true test" of a good government. This book diagnoses the symptoms, explains their general causes, and proposes ways to improve the effectiveness of the federal government. Employing Hamilton's seven measures of an energetic federal service, Paul Light shows how the government is wanting in each measure.
After assessing the federal report card, Light offers a comprehensive agenda for reform, including new laws limiting the number of political appointees, reducing the layers of government management, reducing the size of government as its baby-boom employees retire, revitalizing the federal career, and reducing the heavy outsourcing of federal work. Although there are many ways to fix each of the seven problems with government, only a comprehensive agenda will bring the kind of reform needed to reverse the overall erosion of the capacity to faithfully execute all the laws.
The federal government's "quiet crisis" of the 1980s has become the "deafening crisis" of the early twenty-first century. Virtually every measure of the state of the public service as envisioned by Alexander Hamilton has worsened over the past two decades. This lecture outlines Hamilton's seven characteristics of an energetic federal service and examines recent trends in its decline. Although the federal service still executes an enormous agenda of important missions, it is increasingly frustrated in its work.
Public confidence in charities is key in guaranteeing a vibrant future for treating and solving the world's most important problems. Public confidence affects charitable giving and volunteering, employee recruitment, and gives charities the freedom to dedicate resources toward their most important programs and capacity-building priorities. Unfortunately, public confidence in charities remains at contemporary lows.
A March 2008 survey conducted on behalf of the Organizational Performance Initiative at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service shows four patterns that should worry charitable organizations and sector leaders.
The past two years have been unsettled at best for Congress. Public approval toward Congress remains low, legislative debates have been contentious, polarization remains high, and Congress has a mixed record in dealing with major long-term issues such as Social Security and Medicare. The State Children's Health Insurance program has been delayed awaiting a compromise that might expand coverage, immigration reform has been waylaid by the intensity of opposition across the party lines, energy reform was diluted by ongoing disputes about how to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, and the war in Iraq continues to dictate the pace of major legislative debates.
Building on decades of authoritative scholarship, this completely updated text continues to offer accessible, carefully crafted, and straightforward coverage of the foundations of American politics, as well consistent focus on the achievements of a government by the people
In an increasingly cynical world, GBTP emphasizes that politics matters and encourages, motivates, and even inspires students–with accounts of individual and collective acts of courageousness, intellect, and integrity in the political arena–to be effective and informed citizens.
With each chapter now framed by nationally-selected learning objectives and chapter mastery self-tests, several compelling new features, and an all new contemporary design, this thoroughly updated Twenty-Third Edition continues in the book's long tradition for excellence. As we enter this very complex political era, there is no more reliable or more relevant text to help you advance your students from being simple onlookers to knowledgeable participants in the American political experience.
Research on social entrepreneurship is finally catching up to its rapidly growing potential. In The Search for Social Entrepreneurship, Paul Light explores this surge of interest to establish the state of knowledge on this growing phenomenon and suggest directions for future research. Light begins by outlining the debate on how to define social entrepreneurship, a concept often cited and lauded but not necessarily understood. A very elemental definition would note that it involves individuals, groups, networks, or organizations seeking sustainable change via new ideas on how governments, nonprofits, and businesses can address significant social problems. That leaves plenty of gaps, however, and without adequate agreement on what the term means, we cannot measure it effectively. The unsatisfying results are apple-to-orange comparisons that make replication and further research difficult. The subsequent section examines the four main components of social entrepreneurship: ideas, opportunities, organizations, and the entrepreneurs themselves. The copious information available about each has yet to be mined for lessons on making social entrepreneurship a success. The third section draws on Light's original survey research on 131 high-performing nonprofits, exploring how they differ across the four key components. The fourth and final section offers recommendations for future action and research in this burgeoning field.
Nearly two decades after the first Volcker Commission issued its report on the federal public service, the presidential appointment and confirmation process remains long, cumbersome, intensive, and embarrassing. As the evidence presented in this essay suggests, the process may attract people who are motivated more by personal rewards than by the intrinsic value of public service. Although recent administrations have displayed little enthusiasm for reforming the federal appointment process, the best hope for change may reside in future presidents' desire to assert tight political control over executive departments.
Four years after it opened its doors, the Department of Homeland Security is by general agreement one of the most troubled cabinet-level agencies in the federal government. Hardly a day goes by without some fresh report on a contract gone bad, a new technology that does not work, a new Coast Guard cutter that is not seaworthy, or more cargo that slips through port without inspection. Year after year, virtually every assessment, including those by Congress, the 9/11 Commission, and the department's own inspector general, has given the department the same mediocre grades. "While the terrorists are learning and adapting, our government is still moving at a crawl," said 9/11 Commission chairman Thomas Kean in December 2005.
Social entrepreneurship has come to be synonymous with the individual visionary - the risk taker who goes against the
tide to start a new organization to create dramatic social change. The problem with focusing so much attention
on the individual entrepreneur is that it neglects to recognize and support thousands of other individuals, groups, and organizations that are crafting solutions to troubles around the globe.
The past six decades have witnessed acceleration in both the number and variety of major administrative reform statutes enacted by Congress. This increase can be explained partly by the increased involvement of Congress, a parallel decrease in activity and resistance by the presidency, and heightened public distrust toward government. At least part of the variation in the tides or philosophies of reform involves a "field of dreams" effect in which the creation of new governmental structure during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s generated increased interest in process reforms. However, part of the acceleration and variety of reform appears to be related to the lack of hard evidence of what actually works in improving government performance. Measured by federal employees' perceptions of organizational performance, what matters most is not whether organizations were reformed in the past, but whether organizations need reform in the future and can provide essential resources for achieving their mission.
As they ponder the final 9/11 commission report detailing the continued lack of preparedness among federal agencies, Congress and President Bush should also consider the parallel lack of preparedness among the citizenry as a whole.
As the Department of Homeland Security proceeds with its own recovery from hurricane Katrina, Americans have to wonder what, if anything, can be done to make sure the nation is ready for catastrophes such as earthquakes and terrorist attacks that come without warning.
Four years after September 11th, public confidence in charitable organizations remains stuck at a contemporary low. According to a telephone survey of 1,820 randomly-selected Americans interviewed on behalf of NYU Wagner's Organizational Performance Initiative during the summer of 2005, confidence has held virtually constant since it bottomed out after months of controversy
surrounding disbursement of the September 11th relief funds. As of last summer, 15 percent of Americans said they had a great deal of confidence in charitable organizations, 49 percent said a fair amount, 24 percent said not too much, and 7 percent said none at all. Public views of how charitable organizations operate also remain unchanged. Only 19 percent of Americans said charitable organizations do a very good job running their programs and services, while just 11 percent said the same about spending money wisely. In addition, 66 percent of Americans said that charitable organizations waste a great deal or fair amount of money, while almost half said the leaders of charitable organizations are paid too much. If the past is prologue, these views will continue to drive higher levels of legislative and media scrutiny, which in turn, may further erode public confidence. The survey also suggests that rebuilding confidence must involve sustained investment in strengthening the capacity of charitable organizations to achieve measurable impacts toward their missions.
Whatever his legacy as an architect of the war in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has already earned a place in American bureaucratic history as one of its most ambitious organizational reformers. Rumsfeld is determined to complete a top to bottom overhaul of his department before he leaves office. Rumsfeld may be one of history's most ambitious reformers, but his actual impact is far from assured. He still faces intense resistance from the armed services, especially the Army, which has the most to lose in the movement to a much lighter military. And many of his proposals are either still under consideration in Congress or only in the early stages of implementation in the department. This is very much Rumsfeld's revolution to win or lose it is highly dependent upon his congressional support, which has ebbed and flowed with the fortunes of war, on the urgency of the war on terrorism, which continues to fade with memories of September 11, and on his relationship with the armed services, which has been shaken by the controversy surrounding the equipping of U.S. troops in Iraq. It also depends on his public reputation, which has dropped in the wake of the prison abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. In October 2001, for example, the Harris Poll reported that 78 percent of Americans rated Rumsfeld's job performance as excellent or pretty good; by June 2005, the percentage had fallen to just 42 percent.
Senator Bill First, the majority leader, has often invoked the founding fathers to make his case against delaying tactics like the filibuster, especially when such tactics allow a small number of senators to create what he calls "a tyranny of the minority." But he has shown almost no interest in the founders' similar concerns about tactics that accelerate Senate action, even when those tactics enable a handful of senators to effectively deny the chamber the possibility of reading a bill, let alone debate it. There is plenty of minority tyranny, for example, in the conference committees that Congress uses to spur legislative agreement between the two chambers. Such committees clearly bypass the founders' inefficient back-and-forth in which the House and Senate are supposed to trade versions of legislation until they finally reach agreement. These committees have become more powerful over the years, in no small part because Congress stopped instructing them to stay within the four corners of the versions of legislation at issue. In the 2003 conference over President Bush's energy bill, which eventually failed, conferees added $277 million in subsidies for environmentally friendly shopping malls, including one in Shreveport, La., that would have included a Hooters restaurant. As President Ronald Reagan once said, an apple and an orange could go into a conference committee and come out a pear. There is also enormous opportunity for minority tyranny in the writing of omnibus bills, another legislative accelerant the founders might view as a violation of their constitutional design. Employed after the Civil War to handle the onslaught of private pension bills for disabled veterans, omnibus bills were not used for appropriations until 1950. Since then, they have become a commonplace vehicle for packaging everything from spending bills to highway projects. Last year's $388 billion omnibus bill not only ran more than 1,600 double-sided pages and weighed 14 pounds, it arrived on the House and Senate floor only hours ahead of passage. No wonder members missed the provision that allowed Congressional staff members to review the tax returns of individual taxpayers. Although Mr. Frist promised that Congress would work on reforming the use of omnibus bills, filibuster reform has taken precedence.
The Pittsburgh region faces tough questions as it faces the futures ahead. Will it, for example, find a way to stop its young people from leaving or slip further into the profile of a "weak market" city, with all that means for the erosion of jobs and talent? Will it close the gaps between its citizens on education, health, earnings, and poverty, or will it continue to be listed as a city of disadvantage for African Americans? And will it play an aggressive role in helping Pennsylvania rebuild its aging economy or eventually eclipse North Dakota and West Virginia as the state with the slowest growing economy in the nation?
No one knows yet just how these futures will play out. It could be that the Pittsburgh area is on the cusp of a great revival as it continues to make the turn from an industrial-age economy to an "eds and meds" future. It could also be that the area has reached the maximum range of its geographic spread, thereby signaling an end to the hollowing-out of its inner city. It could even be that the area's young people are starting to see the vibrant opportunities embedded in urban renewal and a low-cost of living, not to mention an expanding arts community, access to some of the nation's greatest educational institutions, and the chance to revel in the return of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the yellow towel industry that goes with it.
The question for this paper is not whether social entrepreneurs exist, however, but whether the field of social entrepreneurship is too exclusive for its own good. The field has mostly defined social entrepreneurs as individuals who launch entirely new social-purpose nonprofit ventures. In doing so, the field may have excluded large numbers of individuals and entities that are equally deserving of the support, networking, and training now reserved for individuals who meet both the current definitional tests of a social entrepreneur and the ever-growing list of exemplars.
Not only does this definition deny the possibility that the intensity and quantity of social entrepreneurship might vary over time and across individuals and entities, it also substantially reduces the population of entrepreneurs who might form the basis for the kind of evidence-based, large-sample, control-group research needed to determine what truly matters to successful social entrepreneurship.
This report, comparing data collected in two surveys, one prior to Hurricane Katrina and one following, identifies a significant drop in public confidence in government's ability to handle disasters in the wake of the botched response to Hurricane Katrina, as well as highlights the growth of a perceived "preparedness divide" between rich and poor.
In 1999, Paul C. Light embarked on an ambitious project which, if successful, would provide organizations of all kinds with a powerful new tool for navigating the turbulent sea of change that is today's global business environment. A guide to achieving and maintaining superlative performance in a highly unpredictable world, this book is the fruit of that endeavor. In it you will learn proven methods for hardening your organization against the surprises and risks of an uncertain future, and how to maintain a competitive edge by being the first to identify and capitalize on the most promising growth opportunities. In The Four Pillars of High Performance, Light paints a portrait of the "robust organization"—that rare organization which possesses both the agility to adjust to changes in the external environment at a moment's notice, and the compass needed to maintain a steady fix on its strategic horizons. He takes us inside a number of these organizations across a range of business sectors, as well as in government, the military, and more. From the examples set by a variety of world-class performers, Light extracts the four key traits common to all robust organizations:
1. ALERTNESS: Spotting fluctuations as they emerge—not after their effects have already been felt
2. AGILITY: Empowering employees with the authority to make routine decisions, reducing barriers between units, encouraging participatory management, and fostering open communications
3. ADAPTABILITY: Changing with circumstances and taking advantage of new opportunities as they arise
4. ALIGNMENT: Saturating the organization with information and providing effective information technology
The Four Pillars of High Performance is an indispensable and unprecedented blueprint for transforming any company into a robust organization.
"The nonprofit sector survives because it has a self-exploiting work force: wind it up and it will do more with less until it just runs out. But at some point, the spring must break."
America's nonprofit organizations face a difficult present and an uncertain future. Money is tight. Workloads are heavy, employee turnover is high, and charitable donations have not fully rebounded from the recent economic downturn. Media and political scrutiny remains high, and public confidence in nonprofits has yet to recover from its sharp decline in the wake of well-publicized scandals.
In a recent survey, only 14 percent of respondents believed that nonprofits did a very good job of spending money wisely; nearly half said that nonprofit leaders were paid too much, compared to 8 percent who said they earned too little. Yet the nonprofit sector has never played a more important role in American life. As a generation of nonprofit executives and board members approaches retirement, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that their organizations are prepared to continue their missions—that they are built to last in a supremely challenging environment.
Paul Light, renowned expert on public service and nonprofit management, strongly argues for capacity-building measures as a way to sustain and improve the efforts of the nonprofit sector. With innovative data and insightful analysis, he demonstrates how nonprofits that invest in technology, training, and strategic planning can successfully advance their goals and restore public faith in their mission and capabilities. He explains the ways in which restoration of that faith is critical to the survival of nonprofits—another important reason for improving and then sustaining performance. Organizations that invest adequately in their infrastructure and long-term planning are the ones that will survive and continue to serve. The New York Times, Monday September 13, 2004
The Commission's report has outlined the essential elements of a more effective intelligence community and homeland security effort. It is now up to Congress and the president to exercise their best judgment on whether and how to proceed, whether through reorganization or long-overdue improvements in key human capital systems, or both.
The past half century has witnessed a slow, but steady thickening of the federal bureaucracy as Congress and presidents have added layer upon layer of political and career management to the hierarchy. The past six years have been no different. Despite the president's promise to bring business-like thinking to the federal government, the Bush administration has overseen, or at the very least permitted, a significant expansion in both the height and width of the federal hierarchy. There have never been more layers at the top of government, nor more occupants at each layer.
Three years after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., confidence in charitable organizations continues to languish well below its pre-September 11 levels. Despite hopes that the confidence would rebound with the mere passage of time, the controversies surrounding disbursement of the September 11 relief funds and subsequent nationally-visible scandals surrounding the Nature Conservancy and several private foundations appear to have left a durable imprint that has yet to fade. The number of Americans who express little or no confidence in charitable organizations increased significantly between July 2001 and May 2002, and remains virtually unchanged to this day. As I argue in Sustaining Nonprofit Performance: The Case for Capacity Building and the Evidence to Support It, which is being released by the Brookings Press at the same time as this fact sheet, charitable organizations did not get any of the post-September 11 "rally" in confidence that boosted government and other civic institutions, but received all of the decline as America returned to a semblance of normalcy in 2002. As a result, confidence in charitable organizations stands roughly 10-15 percent lower today than it was in the summer of 2001.
Bush continues a trend toward smaller agendas begun in the wake of the 1981 tax cuts, which sharply constrained the amount of federal funding for large scale, new programs. He also continues a trend among Republican presidents toward a �less-is-more� philosophy of domestic policy. His agenda is half as large as Richard Nixon's first-term agenda in 1969-72, a third smaller than Ronald Reagan's first-term agenda in 1981-84, and a quarter smaller than his father's first-term agenda in 1989-92. Although less ambitious than his predecessors, Bush's limited number of large-scale, new proposals have been undeniably bold. His tax cuts, education reform, social security revisions, prescription drug coverage, and homeland security reorganization are easily classified as large-scale, new proposals, and match up with the large-scale, new proposals of the past such as civil rights, voting rights, and Medicare under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, environmental protection, revenue sharing, and national health insurance under Richard M. Nixon, energy and social security reform under Jimmy Carter, tax cuts under Ronald Reagan, budget reform under George H. W. Bush, and national health care, Americorps, and welfare reform under Bill Clinton. However, what sets George W. Bush apart is the relatively shallow depth of his agenda. Whereas Kennedy and Johnson pursued 54 large-scale, new proposals in their two first terms, and Nixon another 18, Bush has pursued just five in his. Simply put, George W. Bush has placed all of his domestic policy proposals in a very small basket. Half of his agenda consists of small-scale, conventional proposals, including expanded drug treatment, pension reform, and an energy package that pales in comparison to the energy bills of previous administrations.
The Commission has provided the essential outlines for strengthening our intelligence community and homeland security institution. It is now up to Congress and the president to exercise its judgment on whether and how to proceed, including areas that the Commission did not address.
Fixing problems in the federal government. In 2003, the National Commission on the Public Service, chaired by Paul Volcker, issued a report detailing problems within the federal government today and recommending changes in its organization, leadership, and operations. This book suggests practical ways to implement the recommendations and defines a research agenda for the future. Thirteen essays address the primary problem areas identified by the Volcker Commission, and the commission report itself is included.
This article is adapted from a new book by Paul Light entitled Sustaining Nonprofit Performance: The Case for Capacity Building and the Evidence to Support It, published in 2004 by the Brookings Institution Press.
Imagine a nonprofit's life as a journey up and down a development spiral. All organizations would start with a simple idea for some new program or service and then move up the spiral toward greater and greater impact, progressing through five landings, or stops, along the climb: (1) the organic phase of life, in which they struggle to create a presence in their environment; (2) the enterprising phase, in which they seek to expand their size and scope; (3) the intentional phase, in which they become focused more tightly on what they do best; (4) the robust phase, in which they strengthen their organizational infrastructure to hedge against the unexpected; and (5) the reflective phase, in which they address longer-term issues of succession and legacy.
Public confidence is essential to America's 1.5 million charitable organizations and the 11 million Americans they employ. Confidence clearly affects the public's willingness to donate time and money, shapes the political and regulatory environment that governs charitable organizations, and has at least some influence on morale within the charitable workforce. Confidence slipped when charities were slow to respond after 9/11, and it has been battered in the past year by scandals. The news media have delved into lavish spending at some of the nation's leading philanthropies, improper payments at the United Way of the National Capitol Area, conflicts of interest at the Nature Conservancy, and the firing of new YWCA president and feminist leader Patricia Ireland after just six months on the job. In turn, these stories have sparked legislative investigations and calls for tighter regulation, most recently from the California State Attorney General, who joined his colleagues in Minnesota and New York in calling for a new era in charitable accountability and the legislation to create it. Where the media go, Congress, state attorneys
general, and watchdog groups are sure to follow.
The testimony explains why the Committee's proposed legislation to establish a Department of Defense national security personnel system marks an important step forward in crafting long-overdue changes to our outmoded human capital system in government
Reorganization offers a significant opportunity to align agencies by mission rather than constituencies. If done well it can strengthen accountability, reduce wasteful duplication and overlap, tighten administrative efficiency, improve employee motivation, and provide the kind of integration that leads to impact. The question before this Committee today is not whether reorganization can provide needed improvements in government performance, however, but whether Congress should give the President of the United States reorganization authority of some kind. Light believes the answer is absolutely yes, particularly if granted through the expedited model envisioned by the National Commission on the Public Service chaired by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul
Even as Democrats and federal employee unions battle the Bush Administration's proposal to put thousands of federal jobs up for competition with the private sector, the government's largely-hidden workforce created through contracts and grants has reached its highest level since before the end of the Cold War.
Contrary to those who say that government must become more
businesslike to compete, college seniors almost surely would recommend that government become more nonprofit-like, especially in reassuring potential recruits that they will be given a chance to help people. This emphatic interest in helping people suggests an extraordinary opportunity for public-service organizations to make their case to a motivated workforce: 26 percent of the seniors said they had given very serious consideration to any kind of public-service job, be it working for government, a nonprofit, or a contractor, while another 36 percent had given it somewhat serious consideration.
Although the Center does not have the data to establish a trend line to the past- meaning that this year's number could be up or down from past years-it is hard to imagine how the numbers could be much higher. The question is whether public-service organizations have the agility, let alone the funding, to take advantage of the opportunity. After all, the job market is cold in large part because organizations in all three sectors do not have the money for hiring. For those who are particularly concerned about increasing government's success in the war for talent, this report supports the need for quick action to streamline the hiring process and bolster its reputation as a place where young Americans can make a difference in serving the country. The faster it moves to send a dramatic signal that it is ready to provide the kind of work young Americans clearly want, the faster it can begin strengthening its workforce for the future. This is only one of several significant findings bearing on the future of the public service in the Center's survey of 1,002 college seniors pursuing the humanities, social sciences, social work, and education.
Testimony regarding the Bush Administration's competitive sourcing initiative, which promises to subject at least 50 percent of the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act (FAIR Act) not-inherently governmental jobs up for competition by some as-yet-to-be-determined date.
It was twenty-five years ago that this Committee took up the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. That statute reflected an effort to modernize a personnel system that had not been reformed since 1946, and addressed many of the issues embedded in this bill. Launched in a bipartisan spirit by the Carter-Mondale Administration, the act was designed to create a new era in human resources management. It contained new procedures for pay for performance, accelerated hiring, and waivers for experimentation. It also created the Senior Executive Service, and sought to modernize the outmoded job classification system that governed the hiring and promotion of civil servants.
It is time to pass this bill and begin the next generation of reform. Civil service reform is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue; it is a good government issue. It should be designed first and foremost to assure that talented Americans have the chance to serve their country. As President Carter argued in 1977, the public deserves a government as good as its people. There is overwhelming empirical evidence that this proposal would advance that cause.
It is no longer clear that the federal government work force can pass the following five tests of a healthy public service, which are that it should be:
-Motivated by the public good, not security or a stable paycheck.
-Recruited from the top of the labor market, not the bottom.
-Given the tools to do its job well.
-Rewarded for a job well done, not just showing up day after day.
-Trusted by the people and leaders it serves.
Attracting the most talented citizens to public service has been a challenge for America's leaders since the inception of our nation. The recruiting challenges facing America's
presidents have intensified. These problems were evident in a survey of civic and corporate leaders conducted in the fall of 2000 by Princeton Survey Research Associates on behalf of the Brookings Institution's Presidential Appointee Initiative.
The nonprofit sector will survive the current weak economy because it has the most dedicated workforce in the nation. It is a workforce that comes to work in the morning motivated primarily by the chance to do something worthwhile, savoring the chance to make decisions on its own, take risks, and try new things, and puts mission above all else.
Examines the presidential appointment process in the U.S. Background on the confirmation process; Analysis of the confirmed appointees of several presidents; Cause of delays in the confirmation process; Role of the Senate in the confirmation process.
Public confidence in charitable organizations such as the Red Cross and United Way is essential to a high performing nonprofit or charitable sector. Indeed, confidence affects almost everything that matters to the future of the sector, especially the public's willingness to contribute money and volunteer time. Given its importance as a harbinger, even small declines in confidence should raise alarms across the sector. Complacency does little harm when confidence is high or rising, but may undermine the call for aggressive action
during periods when confidence is low or falling. Unfortunately, according to new research by the Brookings Institution's Center for Public Service, the recent decline in confidence is uncomfortably large, particularly when juxtaposed with other research that has given the sector the benefit of the doubt through question wording or generous analysis.
Government's Greatest Achievement's: From Civil Rights to Homeland Security was designed to understand what the federal government has most actively endeavored to do since World War II, identify the top achievements among its goals, and use its agenda from the past to weigh its most pressing priorities for the future.
The United States cannot win the war on terrorism or rebuild homeland security without a fully dedicated federal civil service. Unfortunately, federal employees report that both the quality of their work life and their level of job satisfaction have declined since September 11. Fewer federal employees are coming to work for the right reasons, even fewer feel their agencies are providing the tools and training to do their jobs well, and even fewer still believe that their organizations are doing a good job at delivering programs and services
Fourth in a series of reports on the changing nature of public service in government and the nonprofit sector, Pathways to Excellence focuses on a unique survey of contemporary thinking about creating effective nonprofit organizations. Based on interviews with 250 leading thinkers from the worlds of philanthropy, scholarship, and consulting, as well as 250 executive directors of some of the nation's most effective nonprofits, the book argues that there is no one best way to higher performance. Although higher performance clearly requires a commitment to excellence, it can be achieved along more than one pathway using one of several different strategies.
Pathways to Excellence shows that every nonprofit organization can improve-no matter how well or poorly it is currently performing-often by taking simple first steps up a development spiral to high performance.
Discusses what prompts and sustains the volunteering decisions of presidents in the U.S. Views of President John F. Kennedy on volunteerism; Volunteer programs that former president Lyndon Johnson helped create; Other presidents of the U.S. that gave contributions to the nation's national service; Effect of service learning on volunteering.
The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11 reminded the nation just how important the federal public service is in times of crisis. The night after the attacks, President Bush said, "the functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington . . . will be open for business tomorrow." In the days and weeks following the attacks, it became clear that not only would government be open, it would take on a greatly expanded role.
Thomas Jefferson had a great deal on his mind as he prepared for his first term as president, not the least of which was the brutal contest that led to his election after 34 ballots in the House of Representatives. Beset by civil unrest at home and threatened from abroad, the nation was fighting for its very survival. Yet, as Jefferson mused about the challenges ahead, he worried most about building an administration whose talents, integrity, names and dispositions, should at once inspire unbounded confidence in the public mind and insure a perfect harmony in the conduct of the public business.
Two hundred years later, there is ample evidence that a president's appointments still have the power to inspire unbounded confidence in the public mind. Confidence in presidential appointees surged dramatically in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and now exceeds confidence in elected federal officials such as members of Congress and federal government workers. The evidence comes from comparing the results of a new nationwide, representative telephone survey of 1,033 adults living in the continental United States with the results of a parallel survey conducted during the summer. Both surveys were conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates for The Presidential Appointee Initiative, a nonpartisan project of the Brookings Institution funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The first survey was conducted between June 18 and July 18, 2001 and the second one was conducted between September 27 and October 6, 2001. For results based on the total sample of either survey, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is within approximately plus or minus 3 percentage points.
No one can be sure what the next fifty years will hold in terms of government achievement, nor can anyone be sure just what the federal government will be doing fifty years from now. The government will almost certainly launch entirely new endeavors, some of which will be driven by scientific breakthroughs already within reach, others from tragedies not yet imagined. Just as the events of September 11 spawned an entirely new effort to protect homeland security, some future tragedy may also spark a new government initiative. If the past is prologue, however, government will continue working on many of its greatest endeavors of the past fifty years. The federal government has been working to defend the nation, help veterans readjust, protect workers, build roads, enhance transportation, promote economic growth, and support the poor since the founding of the Republic. It is hardly likely to stop now.
Reveals the message from two surveys of senior-level appointees from the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Estimated number that said they would strongly recommended presidential service to a good friend; Percentage that said that presidential service would be both an honor and an opportunity to make a difference.
From its very beginnings as a war-weary republic, the United States has always depended on citizen servants to lead its government. The Founding Fathers believed their young nation would not long survive as a representative democracy without leaders whose patriotism and love of justice would allow the new government to rise above the partisan divisions of the day. These hopes for virtuous, wise leaders extended to what Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin called the "posts of honor" in the executive branch. Worried about the bold and fractious individuals who might be drawn to government in search of profit, Franklin proposed that executive officers receive "no salary, stipend, Fee or reward whatsoever for their service." Although the Constitutional Convention quietly tabled his proposal without debate, Franklin expressed the young republic's desperate need for executives motivated by public interest, not private gain.
Focuses on the problems of the United States government in competing for public service workforce and the changes in the federal public service. Two features of the federal government's problem in recruiting talents for public service; Characteristics of public service measured by students at top schools of public policy and administration; Ways for the government to regain its edge in recruiting public service employees.
After years of downsizing, the federal government is poised for expansion again. Directly or indirectly responsible for about one-eighth of the jobs in the nation's economy, the government is about to grow, whether the electorate chooses George W. Bush or Al Gore as the next president. Both candidates are making promises that can only be kept by adding to the true size of government, as measured not only by the size of the federal civil service but also by the number of employees working indirectly for Uncle Sam under contracts and grants. Most notably, Bush and Gore both have vowed to increase military modernization.
In Making Nonprofits Work, Paul C. Light charts the current trends of management reform in the nonprofit sector and assesses the climate for reform at the local and national levels.
Light examines the four popular philosophies, or "tides," being advocated- scientific management, liberation management, war on waste, and watchful eye-offering examples and caveats from a portfolio of recent experience. Drawing on confidential interviews with leaders in nonprofit management reform, a detailed search of Internet sources, and a survey of state associations of nonprofit organizations, Light's findings suggest that the nonprofit sector has a remarkable opportunity to prevent the excesses and fadism that have dominated reform efforts in government and the private sector. He cautions leaders in the nonprofit sector to recognize the limits of various reform models, to set priorities carefully, and to limit investments of reform energy to a handful of priorities. Finally, he urges reformers to boost the sector's ability to implement new systems and reforms by focusing more closely on capacity building.
This article asks how changes in the presidential policymaking process have affected domestic policy in general and the agenda-setting process in particular. The past forty years have witnessed two roughly parallel, but possibly unrelated trends. First, the presidential policy making process has become more formalized as presidents have added staff and capacity to the institutional presidency. Second, the number of proposals on the president's domestic policy agenda have declined in both number and newness. Simply stated, the president's agenda has declined in significance even as the policy process has increased in capacity. This article examines the possible explanations for the trends, while suggesting that institutionalization may not have been the wisest organizational response to the political pressures that led to a shrinking of the president's agenda.
Looking back from the edge of a new millennium, it is difficult not to be proud of what the federal government has tried to achieve these past fifty years. Name a significant domestic or foreign problem over the past half century and the federal government made some effort to solve it, sometimes through massive new programs such as Medicare and Apollo, other times through a string of smaller initiatives to address enduring problems such as disease and poverty. If a nation's greatness is measured in part by the kinds of problems it asks its government to solve, the United States measures up very well, indeed. The proof is in the federal statutes. All totaled, Congress passed more than 500 major laws between 1944 and 1999 to improve the quality of life in the nation and world. Judged not as individual programs but as part of larger endeavors, these statutes speak to the enormous range of federal engagement since World War II. Having emerged victorious from both the war and the Great Depression, Congress called upon the federal government to tackle a bold agenda worthy of the world�s greatest democracy, and provided the statutory authority to act. Convinced that government could do great things, the nation asked the federal government to do just that.
For the first time in more than four decades, the federal budget has registered two consecutive surpluses, and the need to reduce the deficit is not casting a pall over the policy debate. This new, highly accessible book examines the policy options that are available in this new environment to address the new and recurring challenges that face the nation.
The book, which continues the Brookings Institution's highly acclaimed and influential Setting National Priorities series, will serve as a guide for understanding many of the complex issues that will be discussed during the presidential and congressional campaigns of 2000. The book centers around three themes: providing opportunity in the domestic arena, restoring confidence in government, and adapting to the post-Cold War international environment. It tackles such critical issues as Medicare and social security, tax reform, and foreign policy spending, as well as many area not included in previous editions; namely, education, urban problems, the environment, trade, government renewal and reform, crime and drugs, and families.
American government was designed to be led by citizens who would step out of private life to serve their nation, then return to their communities enriched by that service and ready to recruit the next generation of citizen servants. The Founding Fathers understood that the quality of a president's appointments was as important to the public's confidence in government as the laws that its elected leaders would enact. "There is nothing I am so anxious about as good nominations," Thomas Jefferson wrote at the dawn of his presidency in 1801, "conscious that the merit as well as reputation of an administration depends as much on that as on its measures." Two hundred years later, the Founders' model of presidential service is near the breaking point. Not only is the path into presidential service getting longer and more tortuous, it leads to ever- more stressful jobs. Those who survive the appointments process often enter office frustrated and fatigued, in part because they get little or no help, and in part because the process has increasingly become a source of confusion and embarrassment. The evidence comes from a survey conducted for the Presidential Appointee Initiative, which is a project of the Brookings Institution funded by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts. The telephone survey of 435 senior-level appointees who served in the second Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations was co sponsored by the Brookings Institution and Heritage Foundation, and was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates between December 1999 and February 2000.
Without discounting the significant downsizing that has occurred, only one of the two ingredients for a leaner, more efficient government is in place. The girth of government-measured by the total number of federal employees-may be shrinking, but its height-measured by the management tiers between the top and bottom-continues to climb. Every year fewer front-line employees are reporting upward through what appears to be an ever-lengthening chain of command.
According to Paul C. Light's controversial new book, The New Public Service, this January's 4.8 percent federal pay increase will do little to compensate for what potential employees think is currently missing from federal careers. Talented Americans are not saying "show me the money" but "show me the job." And federal jobs just do not show well.
All job offers being equal, Light argues that the pay increase would matter. But all offers are not equal. Light's research on what graduates of the top public policy and administration graduate programs want indicates that the federal government is usually so far behind its private and nonprofit competitors that pay never comes into play.
Light argues that the federal government is losing the talent war on three fronts. First, its hiring system for recruiting talent, top to bottom, underwhelms at almost every task it undertakes. Second, its annual performance appraisal system so inflated that federal employees are not only all above average, they are well on their way to outstanding. Third and most importantly, the federal government is so clogged with needless layers and convoluted career paths that it cannot deliver the kind of challenging work that talented Americans expect.
None of these problems would matter, Light argues, if the government-centered public service was still looking for work. Unfortunately, as Light's book demonstrates, federal careers were designed for a workforce that has not punched since the 1960s, and certainly not for one that grew up in an era of corporate downsizing and mergers. The government-centered public service is mostly a thing of the past, replaced by a multisectored public service in which employees switch jobs and sectors with ease.
Light concludes his book by offering the federal government a simple choice: It can either ignore the new public service and troll further and further down the class lists for new recruits, while hoping that a tiny pay increase will help, or it can start building the kind of careers that talented Americans want
In this paper, we review methods for assessing and managing the risk of extreme events, where 'extreme events' are defined to be rare, severe, and outside the normal range of experience of the system in question. First, we discuss several systematic approaches for identifying possible extreme events. We then discuss some issues related to risk assessment of extreme events, including what type of output is needed (e.g., a single probability vs. a probability distribution), and alternatives to the probabilistic approach. Next, we present a number of probabilistic methods. These include: guidelines for eliciting informative probability distributions from experts; maximum entropy distributions; extreme value theory; other approaches for constructing prior distributions (such as reference or noninformative priors); the use of modeling and decomposition to estimate the probability (or distribution) of interest; and bounding methods. Finally, we briefly discuss several approaches for managing the risk of extreme events, and conclude with recommendations and directions for future research.
This book addresses a seemingly simple question: Just how many people really work for the federal government? Official counts show a relatively small total of 1.9 million full-time civil servants, as of 1996. But, according to Paul Light, the true head count is nearly nine times higher than the official numbers, with about 17 million people actually providing the government with goods and services. Most are part of what Light calls the "shadow of government"-nonfederal employees working under federal contracts, grants, and mandates to state and local governments. In this book--the first that attempts to establish firm estimates of the shadow work force-- he explores the reasons why the official size of the federal government has remained so small while the shadow of government has grown so large.
Light examines the political incentives that make the illusion of a small government so attractive, analyzes the tools used by officials to keep the official headcount small, and reveals how the appearance of smallness affects the management of government and the future of the public service. Finally, he points out ways the federal government can better manage the shadow work force it has built over the past half-century.
Discusses the possible reform of Social Security in the United States (US). Social Security myths and realities; Implication of social welfare problems; Options of the US Congress in reform.
Focuses on the challenges which inspector generals (IGs) in the United States are facing, despite the commemoration of the implementation of the Inspector General Act in 1978. Reference to the opposition which the act faced; What problems was created for IGs with the appointment of Ronald Reagan, as president.
Any organization can innovate once. The challenge is to innovate twice, thrice, and more?to make innovation a part of daily good practice. This book shows how nonprofit and government organizations can transform the single, occasional act of innovating into an everyday occurrence by forging a culture of natural innovation.
Filled with real success stories and practical lessons learned, Sustaining Innovation offers examples of how organizations can take the first step toward innovativeness, advice on how to survive the inevitable mistakes along the way, and tools for keeping the edge once the journey is complete.
Light also provides a set of simple suggestions for fitting the lessons to the different management pressures facing the government and nonprofit sector. Unlike the private sector, where innovation needs only to be profitable to be worth doing, government and nonprofit innovation must be about doing something worthwhile. It must challenge the prevailing wisdom and advance the public good. Sustaining Innovation gives nonprofit and government managers a coherent, easily understood model for making this kind of innovation a natural reality.
The past six decades have witnessed acceleration in both the number and variety of major administrative reform statutes enacted by Congress. This increase can be explained partly by the increased involvement of Congress, a parallel decrease in activity and resistance by the presidency, and heightened public distrust toward government. At least part of the variation in the tides or philosophies of reform involves a "field of dreams" effect in which the creation of new governmental structure during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s generated increased interest in process reforms. However, part of the acceleration and variety of reform appears to be related to the lack of hard evidence of what actually works in improving government performance. Measured by federal employees' perceptions of organizational performance, what matters most is not whether organizations were reformed in the past, but whether organizations need reform in the future and can provide essential resources for achieving their mission.
Part of the Controversial Issues series, this text presents a series of clear and lively debates on current issues in gerontology, authored by leading academic authorities in the field. The text presents a broad overview of issues and questions facing the field, including areas of policy/programs, health, social services, professional and family life, and more. The debates are current and very readable; the text is "user-friendly," and was designed to stimulate student discussion, debate, as well as critical thinking. The text is a "must" for students considering careers in the field of gerontology. The non-technical, brief and lively format of the debates makes them accessible to all students. Issues covered include whether or not to legalize suicide; whether to reduce Social Security benefits; whether to institute means-testing for Medicare; whether affirmative action programs should be instituted for older persons; and the potential dismantling of the aging services network.
Offers suggestions on how to remove the barriers to recruiting minority faculty. Obstacles to recruitment; Position description; Search for the position; Making a short list; Evaluation of criteria to be used in reviewing specific files; Interviews; Extra time for reflection and debate.
Recommends how the Offices of Inspector General (OIG) can end the war of attribution in which they mop up the fraud, waste and abuse in government offices. OIGs prospering in the eighties; Attacking the enemy at the source; Starting with a modern financial management system.
Explores the effects of the activation of pragmatic schemas on children's reasoning performance. Definition of pragmatic schemas; Developmental and general aspects of research findings; Theoretical significance to child psychology.
Presents a response to a critique of a report on actuarial estimates for social security in the U.S., featured in the 1985 issue of the periodical "Public Administration Review." Potential impact of political pressure on the social security estimates; Controversy surrounding the use of confidentiality as a condition of research; Cause of the declining accuracy of the late 1970's and early 1980's estimates.
This article addresses the importance of economic and demographic assumptions in framing the public policy process. It examines functions of such assumptions as an important aspect of government and as a new challenge for public managers. Using Social Security as a case study, the article suggests that recent fore- casts have been inaccurate for four basic reasons: (I) the social and economic environment, (2) technique, (3) assumption drag, and (4) politics. Nevertheless, the assumptions have been crucial at several key legislative turning points in recent Social Security reforms. The article reviews the impact of political pressure in three specific instances and suggests an emerging pattern in the use and misuse of assumptions. The article concludes with suggestions on how to address the importance of assumptions in the public policy process.


text:
Hi I recently got my hair done for the July 4th, in a curl mowahk... etc. And I had to sleep Pretty for these several days, but last night I came home exhausted (I fogot and passed out) and the curls are gone. Is their anyway I can fix, some I still there but flat. Please help I have a event to go to later and I really want it looking decent again. I already paid enough to the hairstylist... thanks all!
Most Helpful Girl
YouTube it. That way you can see what needs to be done. Good luck11|00|0


text:
warning "pressure corrections limited in 1540604 cells in region FLUID"
I have the output: "pressure corrections limited in 1540604 cells in region FLUID"
What can I do?
Well, that depends on when that message appears and for how long. Usually it indicates the initialization is bad or there are too high pressure / velocity gradients in your domain.
When it's right at the beginning and your case keeps running and the message disappears after some (hundered) iterations, I would ignore it.
When the number drops to some few cells where the pressure correction was limited, I would ignore it.
When the case crashes right at the beginning, try a better initialization.
When it crashes after some iterations but the number of cells drops, try to reduce the under relaxation factors.
When the message still occurs after a lot of iterations, check your boundary conditions and your mesh.
thanks but I want to simulated a pipe with internal fluid, with these real datas: Pin(Pa),Tin (C), m (kg/s), Pout (Pa), Tout (C)
Pin=3.517 MPa
Tin=204 C
Tout=242 C
Pout=3.5083 Mpa
I do not know exactly the best option for my initialization wit my fluid, inlet and outlet. I used this inicial condition:
1º my fluid:
Reference Values:
References Pressure:3.517 MPa
Inicial condition:
Pressure: 3.517 MPa
S Temperature: 204 C
Velocity:0.3146 m/s
2º inlet-->velocity inlet
S Temperature: 204 C
Turbulence Intensity:0.037
Turbulent length Scale:4mm
Velocity Magnitude:0.3146 m/s
Static Temperature:242 C
Turbulent length Scale:4mm
Turbulent viscosity ratio: 10
is the best way to set the inicial condition?
It looks suspicious to me that the reference pressure is that high. You should consider, all pressure settings in Star-CCM+ are relative to the reference pressure. So setting a reference pressure of 3.517 MPa and an initial pressure of 3.517 would result in an absolute initial pressure of 7.034 MPa. So I think, you meant a reference pressure of about 1 bar?
Anyway, it is still unclear when your issue occurred. Was it right after starting the simulation, or was it after some iterations? If so, after how many iterations?
i have seted a reference pressure of 0.1 MPa (0.5 and 1MPa) and an initial pressure of 3.517 would result in an absolute initial pressure of 4.734 MPa, only wit 9 interation (20, 50) and it run stopped because IAPWS-IF97 outside range Tout, frist momet BIGGSTAB DID NOT CONVERGE.
Do you have any idea? I used good table, velocity. I do not know ....
thanks for your post
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Chocolate Mousse Pie
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READY IN: 20mins
Recipe by veruca salt
I got this recipe from my best friend when I told her I needed a quick delicious,but fast,desert to prepare for a dinner party.There is a recipe for a crust,but I used a pre-baked chocolate crust from the store,to save time.I also put a dallop of whip cream on the side of the plate with some chocolate shavings,instead of using a pastry bag and tip.This saved me a lot of time,and still resulted in a wonderfull pie.Enjoy.
See Discussion:
Ingredients Nutrition
- 21 chocolate sandwich style cookies
- 1⁄4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces,room temperature
- 12 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 3⁄4 cups chilled whipping cream
- 1⁄4 cup sugar
- chocolate shavings (optional)
Directions See How It's Made
- FOR CRUST: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Butter a 9-inch diameter spring form pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides.
- Finely grind cookies in processor.
- Add butter and process until mixture is evenly moistened.
- Press crumb mixture onto bottom and up sides of prepared pan to form a thin crust.
- Bake crust 5 min.
- Transfer crust to rack and cool completely.
- FOR MOUSSE: Combine chocolate,vanilla and salt in processor.
- Bring 1 cup cream to boil in a heavy small sauce pan.
- With processor running,gradually pour hot cream through feed tube.
- Process until chocolate is melted and smooth.
- Transfer mixture to large bowl.
- Cool to room temperature,stirring occasionaly.
- Beat 2 cups cream and sugar in large bowl to stiff peaks.
- Fold into chocolate mixture.
- Pour mousse into prepared crust.
- Chill until set,about 6 hours.
- Can be made 1 day ahead of time.
- Beat remaining 3/4 cup cream in medium bowl to firmpeaks.
- Transfer to pastry bag with a medium star tip.
- Pipe rosettes of cream around edge of pie.
- Garnish with chocolate shavings.


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Say you were seeing a girl for a couple weeks. Not as an official couple or anything, but just going on dates and enjoying each other's company.
In my case I met the guy from Tinder. I know that a lot of people go on that app to find someone to hook up with and I made it clear from the beginning that I wasn't that kind of girl.
He still took the initiative to talk to me and seemed normal so I met up with him and we began seeing each other for a couple weeks.
I didn't fully trust the guy because we barely knew each other and I found him on tinder, so it was natural I would question if he did just want sex.
He seemed nice early on and seemed to show genuine interest, but I did notice towards the end he was pushing for an open relationship. He definitely pushed my physical boundaries in a very bad way also, when he knew it was too much for me.
We never had sex but It did bother me that he wanted to do physical things a lot despite knowing how I felt about it. It also bothered me that he stopped talking to me once I wasn't near him anymore.
Long story short I'm 99 percent sure the guy was in it just to get laid but I never directly accused him of that.
When I told him I was done with him because he didn't seem invested in me and that he led me on and confused me, he said I mistreated him because I did not fully trust him.
Am I wrong for thinking that's unreasonable? I only knew him a couple weeks.. The fact that he would say cute things but not want to be exclusive but also that he wanted to do physical stuff a lot were huge tip offs he wasn't trustworthy..
Most Helpful Guy
Don't fall for his guilt trip. It looks like you were upfront about your feelings and he ignored it.00|00|0


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It's a sad day for RPG fans when an upcoming genre entry slips under the radar because of a convoluted release schedule, but that seems to be exactly what's happening to Midway's upcoming sequel, Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Developed by the capable team at Nautilus and created once again in conjunction with Aruze, Shadow Hearts II (as it's known in Japan) is only a few months away from an American release. But for the majority of domestic gamers looking for their next big dungeon crawler out there, Nautilus' first effort remains little more than a mystery.
As big-time RPG nuts ourselves, we've decided that it's our civic duty to bring some extra attention to the game for those that have missed it. And what better way to do so, we thought, than to highlight one of the game's most important aspects: its battle system. Known as "The Judgment Ring," this highly-interactive combat engine borrows several of the same elements that powered 2001's original Shadow Hearts, while expanding on it by quite a bit. Needless to say, fans of the original will likely enjoy the changes.
Highlighted below, we've broken the system down so you can understand how it works and why it's much improved over the first game. And as an extra special bonus, we've included direct feed videos of the battle system on our media page too. We've even incorporated a specialized mini-documentary created specifically for IGN by the team at Midway to walk you through the battle process. It's pretty cool too, so make sure you check it out after you read the following. And now, on with the show!
Determining the Outcome of Battles
The previous Shadow Hearts had an element that gave the action a distinct sense of urgency combined with an easy to use battle mechanic. That same mechanic, known as the "Judgment Ring" system, has been inherited by Shadow Hearts: Covenant as well.
To put it simply, the Judgment Ring provides an onscreen Wheel of Fortune-like circle whenever a specific attack method has been selected. The ring is then book ended by a target needle that can be placed within the various hit zones by pressing circle button when you want it to stop spinning. Furthermore, the hit zones are divided into several parts with each zone corresponding to a hit with consecutive attacks. By pressing the button within all hit areas, players will be able to successfully unleash repeated attacks.
If the third Hit Area is missed, however, it goes to two consecutive hits and if the second Hit Area is missed, it goes to a single hit. If the button is not pressed in the first Hit Area, the character's attack misfires and the character's turn is over. Is it pretty straightforward? Sure. But it's a lot more interactive than your typical turn-based fare.
Damage Modifiers
The red zone behind the Hit Area is called the "Strike Area." By pressing the button in this range, the damage inflicted to opponents is increased. Keep in mind, however, that the Strike Area is located at the back of the Hit Zone and the width is very narrow. Therefore, if this is missed, the danger of a misfire on the attack increases. Of course, the danger of missing increases by trying too hard to hit the Strike Area. But by hitting all the Strike Areas in the Hit Areas, a great amount of damage can be expected.
Specialty Attacks
The size of the Hit Areas and their locations differ according to the character. The weapons and the types of magic are also different. In the previous game, there were three uniform Hit Areas for all the characters; however, this has changed to vary from one to three according to the character in this game. The differences in the idiosyncrasies between the characters have been made clearer. That's a good thing.
Hit Area Bonuses
In the previous Shadow Hearts the character always had three set Hit Areas throughout the game. However, in Shadow Hearts: Covenant, the number of Hit Areas can now increase by using a special item. Depending upon the character, this may be increase up to a maximum of five slots, which makes five consecutive hits for one hero entirely possible.
Sound like a battle system that intrigues you? Then click on our media page below to see it in action. Don't forget to check out our little mini-documentary on The Judgment Ring too, it's quite the interesting watch. See you again soon with more on Shadow Hearts: Covenant.


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In terms of safety, the 2009 Suzuki XL7 is near the top of its class.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) gave the XL7 top ratings in its frontal offset test and the second-highest Acceptable rating in side-impact crash testing. The 2009 Suzuki XL7 earned five stars in all crash tests performed at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) except for rollover, in which it earned four.
According to Edmunds, Suzuki XL7 standard safety equipment includes "antilock brakes, stability control and traction control." Cars.com reports that the Suzuki XL7 also "comes with side curtain airbags [and] a tire pressure monitoring system."
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Comedian Kapil Sharma is any less nervous before the release of his debut film "Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon" thing, as he is happy to have come a long way in its race. The 34-year-old star "Comedy Nights with Kapil" is making its foray into romantic comedy Bollywood filmmaker duo Abbas-Mustan indianexpress. "No nervousness
on the film Comedy Nights with Kapil . I have come far in life and I've achieved so much that I do not get nervous now. I love my fans and that's enough. I am very happy with the response to the songs and movie trailers, so now I'm waiting for the release of the movie, "said Kapil PTI.
Watch Comedy Nights with Kapil 13 September Colors Tv
The actor shot to fame after winning a comedy reality competition series in 2007. In 2013, he launched his own TV show "Comedy Nights with Kapil" under its banner K9 Production. The comedian, who had become a household name courtesy of the show, has no plans to leave his television career in film. "I will not leave 'Comedy Night
with Kapil '. I love to host the show. I can juggle between cinema and television. I have no intention of leaving the television, "he said. The actor is in talks but no dashes signed anything yet Comedy Nights with Kapil . "Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon" also starring Arbaaz Khan, Elli Avram, Varun Sharma and Manjari Phadnis among others, is set to release on September 25.