Breaking Through Bureaucracy: A New Vision for Managing in Government. (book reviews)

Barzelay aims Breaking through Bureaucracy as a torpedo below the waterline of public administration. Traditional approaches to bureaucracy, he argues, have undermined the effectiveness, efficiency, responsiveness, and political support of public bureaucracy. Despite strong evidence that it no longer works well, the "bureaucratic paradigm" persists. Rules, procedures, authority, and hierarchy dominate when flexibility, quality, empowerment, innovation, service, and value ought to rule. With this book, Barzelay has written a brief for moving past the bureaucratic ...