Booknotes

• Published date: 01 January 2005
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2005.00437.x
• Date: 01 January 2005

122 Public Administration Review •January/February 2005, Vol. 65, No. 1

The material in Booknotes is based

on information obtained either from

publishers or from the books them-

selves. Authors and publishers inter-

ested in having their books included

in Booknotes or considered for review

are encouraged to send two copies to

the book review editor. Books listed

in this section may be included in a

book review essay later.

Bresser-Pereira, Luiz Carlos. 2004.

Democracy and Public Management

Reform: Building the Republican

State. New York: Oxford University

Press. ISBN: 0-19-926118-0.

Taking an “eclectic and reason-

able approach to the state and to

the institutional reforms,” Bres-

ser-Pereira examines the evolu-

tion of the state, the emergence

of republican rights, and the

transformation of modern demo-

cratic state. He discusses public

management reforms in Britain,

New Zealand, Australia, the

United States, Sweden, France,

Latin America, and Brazil that

have responded to the crisis of

the welfare state in developed

countries and of the developmen-

tal state in developing countries.

Based on his experience as

Brazil’s minister of reform, the

author posits a model of public

management reform as a tool for

building the republican state. The

book concludes with a discus-

sion of the association between

public management reform and

democracy in the context of his-

torical and political processes.

Dilger, Robert Jay, Eleanor H.

Blakely, Melissa Latimer, Barry L.

Locke, F. Carson Mencken, L. Chris-

topher Plein, Lucinda A. Potter, and

David Williams. 2004. Welfare Re-

form in West Virginia. Morgantown:

West Virginia University. ISBN: 0-

937058-82-3.

Booknotes

Based on the collaborative work

of West Virginia University and

the West Virginia Department of

Health and Human Resources,

this book examines West Virgin-

ia’s welfare system, its current

state, and the possibility of its

reform. Each chapter addresses

a different aspect of welfare re-

form and offers practical reform

recommendations on such topics

as cash assistance and social

welfare policy, the implementa-

tion of welfare reform in West

Virginia, training opportunities,

and program outcomes for WV

WORKS program participants.

Feiock, Richard C., ed. 2004. Met-

ropolitan Governance: Conflict,

Competition, and Cooperation. Wash-

ington, DC: Georgetown University

Press. ISBN: 1-58901-020-5.

This book seeks an alternative

approach to regional governance,

emphasizing decentralized gov-

ernance through cooperation and

competition among governmen-

tal units and between govern-

ments and community actors.

Decentralized governance is

marked by self-governance that

is based on horizontal and verti-

cal networks of actors, including

public agencies, nonprofit orga-

nizations, and private organiza-

tions. The book is divided into

two parts—the theoretical frame-

work and an empirical examina-

tion. The authors present “insti-

tutional collective action” as a

theoretical framework for re-

gional governance, where the

structure of decentralized and

networked local governance is

formed through voluntary agree-

ments and network organiza-

tions, intergovernmental rela-

tions, and citizens’ collective ac-

tions. The empirical examination

addresses aspects of decentral-

ized governance, the mecha-

nisms of cooperation and com-

petition, and their consequences

(land use management, eco-

nomic development, education

policy, public-service delivery)

in regional governance. In the

concluding chapter, Feiock notes

that the study of regional gover-

nance can contribute to the field

of political science and suggests

this study should apply concep-

tual frameworks that are widely

used in other areas of political

science.

Forsythe, Dall W. 2004. Memos to

the Governor: An Introduction to

State Budgeting. Washington, DC:

Georgetown University Press. ISBN:

1-58901-019-1.

In this updated edition, Dall of-

fers practical insights into the

“technical, economic and politi-

cal dynamics of budget-mak-

ing.” The book includes eight

memos covering aspects of state

budgets and financial manage-

ment: the relationship between

the budget office and the gover-

nor and a set of skills that bud-

get officers should have; budget

strategy; technical underpin-

nings of executive-budget prepa-

ration; choices in the final phase

of budget preparation; budget

tactics; the budget and the pub-

lic; the legislative phase of the

budget process; and budget ex-

ecution.

Light, Paul. 2004. Sustaining Non-

profit Performance: The Case for

Capacity Building and the Evidence

to Support It. Washington, DC:

Brookings Institution. ISBN: 0-8157-

5225-3.

Light explores how the public’s

low confidence in charitable or-

ganizations can be restored

through relatively simple orga-

nizational and managerial inno-

vations such as strategic plan-