The age of the network: Organizing principles for the 21st century; And how organizations act together: Interorganizational coordination in theory and practice
✍ Scribed by Jane E. Fountain
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 102 KB
- Volume
- 16
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0276-8739
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Book Reviews / 497 and engagingly as Bimber. To the extent that his book is widely read, and it should be, it is likely to take on the feel of conventional wisdom in our discussions of expertise and political institutions.
For the student of public policy and public management, disenchanted with a Congress that never seems to do things in a rational, comprehensive, or clearly defined manner, Whiteman's study offers a wealth of insight. It is not merely special interests and the goal to be reelected that drive congressional decisionmaking, but the congressional enterprise whose dynamics are defined by personality, experience, leadership, and even gender, struggling to balance constituent responsiveness, an overwhelming number of policy demands, and the need to do its job in an informed manner. For those enterprises at the core of an issue network, their efforts are quite admirable. Yet, regardless of the wisdom offered in policy analysis, expert advice is only one of many components that must enter the calculus to shape policy and make decisions. If it is a bit like making sausage, at least there is a wide search for ingredients by the presiding chefs, and an effort to understand potential side effects upon consumption.