Steven J. Balla is associate professor of political science, public policy and public administration, and international affairs at George Washington University. He is also a research associate at the George Washington Institute of Public Policy, and a member of the International Working Group on Online Consultation and Public Policy Making.

Chapter 1: Bureaucracies as Policymaking Organizations The Contours of Public Bureaucracy Accountability and Performance in Public Bureaucracies Accountability and Its Many Faces The Push for Performance Accountability and Performance: Theories and ApplicationsChapter 2: Bureaucratic Reasoning Bounded Rationality Simplified Problem Solving Evidence-Based Research Implications for Policy Analysis Motivation Consequences of Bounded Rationality ConclusionChapter 3: The Bureaucracy's Bosses Delegation, Adverse Selection, and Moral Hazard Why Bureaucracy? Managing Delegation Principal-Agent Theory and the Bureaucracy's Clients Principals and PrinciplesChapter 4: The Bureaucracy's Clients The Benefits, Costs, and Politics of Public Policy The Rise and Fall of Iron Triangles The Venues of Client Participation Client Influence on Bureaucratic Policymaking Clients and the Institutions of Government Client Participation: Three Lessons and BeyondChapter 5: Bureaucratic Networks Networks versus Hierarchies Network Theory The Tools Approach Types of Bureaucratic Networks Network Effectiveness The Effectiveness of Policy Tools Networks and Public BureaucracyChapter 6: The Politics of Disaster Management The Gulf of Mexico: Two Crises with Precedent September 11, 2001: A Crisis without Precedent Avian Influenza: A Crisis in the Making? Evaluating Bureaucracy in Light of the TheoriesChapter 7: Why Are Some Bureaucracies Better Than Others? Rating the Performance of Agencies Explaining Variations in Performance Alternative Ways of Gauging Agency Performance Bureaucracy in the Twenty-First Century

Given the influence of public bureaucracies in policymaking and implementation, Steven J. Balla and William T. Gormley assess their performance using four key perspectives-bounded rationality, principal-agent theory, interest group mobilization, and network theory-to help students develop an analytic framework for evaluating bureaucratic accountability. The new Fourth Edition of Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance provides a thorough review of bureaucracy during the Obama and Trump administrations, as well as new attention to state and local level examples and the role of bureaucratic values.?New to this Edition: Interviews with two new cabinet secretaries-Christine Todd Whitman and Tom Ridge-with insightful quotes from them throughout the book.Added material on the battle over regulations, a battle that will loom large during the Trump administration, including midnight regulations and the Congressional Review Act.New examples demonstrate the activity and influence of constituencies of different kinds including the placing of women and minorities on US currency, a vignette that features the musical Hamilton, and the political protests surrounding the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.A new discussion of the privatization of roads, the pros and cons.