Trump and the Bureaucrats: The Fate of Neutral Competence. New Book by Interim Dean Stuart Shapiro

January 31, 2023

Donald Trump came to office vowing the deconstruction of the administrative state, and for four years he and his loyalists waged war on the federal bureaucracy. How did this conflict affect both those inside the government and the way federal officials view their role? Disputes over the role of bureaucrats as experts and as politically neutral are more than a century old. But the Trump Administration’s position in these debates was very different. Based on 50 interviews with officials at the Office of Management and Budget, the Congressional Budget Office, the Government Accountability Office, and the Economic Research Service at USDA, I conclude both that neutral competence in the federal government is alive and well within those agencies, and in danger from future Trump like presidents

Interim Dean Stuart Shaprio

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-22079-1#toc

Recent Posts

Molloy Discusses Criteria for Healthiest Cities

Location matters when it comes to health. Some places promote wellness by expanding access to nutritious food and recreational facilities. Others strive to keep healthcare costs affordable for everyone or keep parks clean and well-maintained. When a city doesn’t take...

McGlynn & Payne Explore the Relational Reprojection Platform

Counter-GIS Experiments in Distance Interpolation with the Relational Reprojection Platform Abstract In this paper, we discuss the cartographic genealogy and prospective uses of the Relational Reprojection Platform (RRP), an interactive tool that we built to create...

Clint Andrews–The Critical Role of University Research

The Critical Role of University Research: Funding, Challenges, and Impact This week on EJB Talks dean Stuart Shapiro and Associate Dean of Research Clint Andrews discuss the vital role federal-funded university research plays in complementing education, driving...

Payne Investigates City Digital Twins Concepts

Expanding the city digital twin in the context of crisis, cartography and computation Abstract This commentary responds to Gillian Rose's ‘Visualising human life in volumetric cities: city digital twins and other disasters’ as a framework for thinking about crisis and...

Nashia Basit (MPP/MCRP ’24) on Women’s Leadership

This week, alumna and current Governor's Fellow Nashia Basit (MPP/MCRP '24) discussed women's leadership in state government and cultivating spaces for women to be successful with Allison Chris Myers, Esq., CEO of the New Jersey Civil Service Commission....