Sludge: What Stops Us from Getting Things Done and What to Do About It, By Cass R. Sunstein (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2021), 153 pp. Cost: $22.36 (hard cover), ISBN: 978–0262045780

• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Author: Stephanie Thum
• Date: 01 January 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13578

BOOK REVIEWS

Sludge: What Stops Us from

Getting Things Done and

What to Do About It

By Cass R. Sunstein (Cambridge, MA: MIT

Press, 2021), 153 pp. Cost: $22.36 (hard

cover), ISBN: 978–0262045780

Stephanie Thum

Indiana Institute of Technology, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA

Email: slthum01@indianatech.net

Cass Sunstein’sSludge: What Stops Us from Getting Things

Done and What to Do About It is a book that could easily

have been titled Sludge: What Keeps *Customers* from

Getting Things Done and What to Do About It. That’s

because the book is really about the customers of govern-

ment and private industry, and the harmful administrative

sludge that stalls their experiences.

Sludge is not exclusive to government, and it is not

exclusive to the United States. However, Sunstein’s book

focuses primarily on what sludge means in the

U.S. federal government context. It is good timing. A

recent White House report suggested that sludge exacer-

bates inequities for customers of government. Those who

need government services the most oftentimes do not

have the resources to navigate the sludge that comes

with accessing the help they need.

Some may scoff at the notion of customers in govern-

ment (https://www.performance.gov/cx/assets/files/2022-

OMB-Circular-A11-Section-280.pdf). However, White House

guidelines to agencies, President’s Management Agenda

goals, Executive Orders, laws, and intra-government over-

sight bodies like the Government Accountability Office

and Inspectors General have matured the concept of the

government customer. Customer-mindedness has moved

from “nice to have”into the realms of mandated reality

for federal agencies.

WHAT IS SLUDGE?

The book opens in chapters 1 and 2 with Sunstein’sexpla-

nations of sludge—what it is and how it can hurt people

on the receiving end—particularly those who may be

vulnerable, poor, desperate, or struggling. Sunstein sets the

stage with examples of sludge-heavy processes associated

with applying for federal student aid, receiving health care

benefits, registering a complaint about defective products,

standing in line to vote, or waiting on hold at a call center

to speak to someone about fixing a broken laptop. He

writes that sludge goes beyond the familiar (but vague)

concept of bureaucratic red tape and administrative burden

while overlapping with it. He notes that sludge is about

ridiculous, unnecessary rules, burdensome paperwork, long

processes and the time, monetary, psychological, and phys-

iological costs associated with navigating those rules and

processes that sometimes keeps customers of government

from accessing services they need most.

It should be noted that Sunstein’s characterizations of

sludge are very similar to descriptions of red tape and admin-

istrative burden offered in the past by scholars such as Boze-

man, Herd and Moynihan, Kaufman, and Tummers et al

(Carrigan et al., 2020;Madsenetal.,2022). Sunstein references

Herd and Moynihan’s work specifically. Pro-bureaucracy

thinker (Goodsell 2004)aswell,hascitedsomeofthesame

justifications for sludge as Sunstein noted in chapter 5, like

program integrity, collecting data that can help leaders under-

stand if programs are working, and ensuring that only the

people who qualify for services receive them. Sludge, like red

tape and administrative burden, is subjective, and based on

perceptions. Some people have awful experiences navigating

it at the most inopportune times of their lives. Others find

value in it (Bozeman 1993; Bozeman & Feeney 2011;Herd&

Moynihan 2021; Kaufman 2015; Tummers et al., 2016).

Sludge may or may not be a better term of reference for

the concept under discussion. Sunstein likely would not fuss

over what you call it. He makes it clear up front and through-

out: His objective is to obliterate sludge, not uphold it. When

one considers the 11.4 billion hours of the time the cus-

tomers of the U.S. government are asked to spend on sludge

in a year, as Sunstein notes in the book, it may be easy to

understand why he feels that way. If time is money as the

saying goes, then those 11.4 billion hours equate to approxi-

mately$308billioninimposedcostsonthecustomersof

government, based on Bureau of Labor and Statistics data.

In chapter 4, Sunstein details more examples of cum-

bersome and costly “sludge in action”like applying for

benefit programs, occupational licensing programs, and

student visas. As has been established in the literature on

red tape and as Sunstein rearticulates in the book, sludge

carries costs and consequences for the customers of

government—some more so than others. When sludge is

excessive, it hurts people because it takes away their time,

money, and dignity. “When you are suffering,”as Sun-

stein writes on page 7, “the last thing you want to do is

find your way through sludge.”

Received: 1 December 2022 Accepted: 1 December 2022

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13578

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