Review of Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector. David Osborne and Ted Gaebler. Reviewed by Mark Lusk, Boise State University.

Authors

Mark W. Lusk, University of Wyoming

Abstract

For most, the concept of a public entrepreneur is an oxymoron much like military music. But for a new generation of thinkers, such as those at the Progressive Policy Institute, government can be held accountable to its constituency by combining democratic representation with lessons learned in the marketplace. Therein lies the essence of a series of publications of which the present volume is among the better recent examples. Beginning with Peter Drucker's Age of Discontinuity in 1968 and culminating in the 1991 publication of Susan Rose- Ackerman's Rethinking the Progressive Agenda, non-conservatives have been considering the importance of market forces and consumer accountability to the management of the public sector. Lessons from the private sector are being incorporated into the building of a new model of democratic capitalism that the authors contend is being practiced from the schoolhouse to the Pentagon.

Recommended Citation

Lusk, Mark W. (1994) "Review of Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector. David Osborne and Ted Gaebler. Reviewed by Mark Lusk, Boise State University.," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 21: Iss. 1, Article 14.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.2116
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol21/iss1/14