How to “Run” the Many Moving Parts In and Around Democratic Government? Nissim Cohen, Policy Entrepreneurship at the Street Level (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021). 89 pp. (including index), $20 (paperback), ISBN: 9781108818865.

• Published date: 01 January 2022
• Author: Jos C. N. Raadschelders
• Date: 01 January 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13450

192 Public Administration Review • January | Fe bruary 20 22

John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University

Reviewed by: Jos C. N. Raadschelders

How to “Run” the Many Moving Parts In and Around

Democratic Government? Nissim Cohen, Policy

Entrepreneurship at the Street Level (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2021). 89 pp. (including index), $20

(paperback), ISBN: 9781108818865.

Democracy is the best possible institutional

arrangement for a government of, by, and

for the people, and the administrative

state makes democracy viable. It is only in the past

100–150 years, that the size of government has grown

significantly as measured in terms of personnel

size, organizational differentiation, revenue and

expenditures, and primary and secondary laws.

The seemingly sudden growth of bureaucracy was

a concern to Max Weber who wondered whether

democracy would be sustainable under the inexorable

growth of bureaucracy (1980, 836). His concern was

shared by, among others, journalist H. L. Mencken,

novelist Franz Kafka, and composer Erik Satie. A

century later, it is clear that democracy has benefited

from bureaucracy, and the book by Nissim Cohen

sheds light on one category of actors responsible.

To fully appreciate the argument he makes, we need

to recognize that the position and role of government

and its bureaucracy has changed significantly in

a—historically speaking—rather short span of time.

Ever since people became sedentary and started to

live in the imagined communities of city-states, they

established formal institutional arrangements for

governing (Raadschelders 2020). For most of history,

government was a top-down affair: It was run by a

leader (however titled) supported by the aristocracy,

and especially by those among the elites who occupied

leadership positions in the military, the priesthood,

and the bureaucracy. Government and its bureaucracy

was the property of those who ruled. The large

majority of people were treated as subjects, and the

people perceived themselves as subjects.

The American and French Revolutions changed that

institutional arrangement fundamentally into one

where the people slowly changed from subjects into

citizens. In their role of citizen, the people became

sovereign. Since the mid-nineteenth century they

Jos C. N. Raadschelders, professor

and associate dean of faculty, John

Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio

State University. His research interests

include: the nature of the study of public

administration, the nature of democratic

government, comparative government, and

ethics. He was the managing editor of

PAR

,

2006–2011.

Email: raadschelders.1@osu.edu

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 82, Iss. 1, pp. 192–195. © 2021 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13450.