The Government We Deserve: Responsive Democracy and Changing Expectations

The Government We Deserve offers a truly fresh perspective on the most important issues in American government and economic policy. The authors examine the state of the nation through hardheaded, detailed snapshots of our national economy, our population, our government, and our political process. They propose a fundamental rethinking of our commitments as a society, our public responsibilities, and our processes for making policy choices ― a rethinking that can help make government more responsive to changing expectations and changing needs.

C. Eugene Steuerle is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and author of a weekly column, "Economic Perspective," for Tax Notes magazine. He has worked under four different U.S. presidents on a wide variety of social security, budget, tax, health, and other major reforms, including service both as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Analysis (1987 89) and as the original organizer and Economic Coordinator of the Treasury's 1984 86 tax reform effort. He is the author or co-author of over 150 books, articles, reports, and testimonies, including the recent Urban Institute Press books Retooling Social Security for the 21st Century, The New World Fiscal Order, Serving Children with Disabilities, and The Tax Decade.

Edward M. Gramlich is a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Dr. Gramlich contributed to this book while he was serving as dean of the school of public policy at the University of Michigan and director of the Institute of Public Policy Studies. From 1986 to 1987 he was both deputy director and acting director of the Congressional Budget Office. He has also served as director of the policy research division at the Office of Economic Opportunity, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a staff member of the research division of the Federal Reserve Board. He has written on topics including budget policy, fiscal federalism, and social security.

Hugh Heclo is Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at George Mason University. He is recognized as an expert on the government and social policies of western European nations and the United States, and has received awards for books including Comparative Public Policy and Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden. He is a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He completed his graduate studies with an M.A. at Manchester University and a Ph.D. from Yale University, coming to George Mason from a professorship at Harvard University.

Demetra Smith Nightingale is a principal research associate in the Human Resources Policy Center at the Urban Institute, where she is director of the Welfare and Training Research Program. She is a nationally recognized expert in social policy and has for over 20 years focused her research on issues related to poverty and the alleviation of poverty. She has a Ph.D. in public policy from George Washington University, and serves on numerous advisory boards and task forces at the national, state, and local levels. She is co-editor with Robert Haveman of the recent book The Work Alternative: Welfare Reform and the Realities of the Job Market.