Walter Williams

This is a reasoned but passionate look at how Reaganism - the political philosophy of Ronald Reagan - has severely damaged representative democracy as created by the nation's founders. According to Williams, Reagan and his foremost disciple George W. Bush have created a plutocracy where the United States is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people but is ruled by the wealthiest individuals and corporate America. Refreshingly unafraid to point out that Reaganism's anti-government fundamentalism stands on feet of clay, Walter Williams asks that Americans move from their political apathy to pay attention to the politicians and the corporations lurking behind the power curtain to see the dangers they represent to the true essential of the American way of life. Williams' most important contribution is his extended analysis of the central role the key institutions - the presidency, Congress, the federal agencies - must play for the U.S. government to be capable in both sustaining representative democracy and protecting the safety and economic security of the American people. A clear result of the weakened institutions has been the grossly inadequate homeland security effort following September 11, and the massive corporate fraud revealed by Enron and other large firms that robbed the nation of hundreds of billions of dollars in stock values and depleted the pension savings of millions of people. The initial destructive blow that damaged the institutions of governance can be traced to Ronald Reagan and his simplistic antigovernment philosophy that fostered rapacious business practices and personal greed. The book also takes the media to task, criticizing the dismal record of failing to investigate the political and corporate chicanery that has brought us to this pass. Keenly argued and scrupulously documented, Walter Williams has written a stinging wake-up call to the dangers of the demise of representative democracy and the rise of plutocracy that American citizens can ignore only at their peril.

historically,as you progress through time,you will eventually encounter a powerful triad of religions:christianity,islam and judaism.all of these religions have had strong mass appeal and persuasive powers, and they remain the most powerful tools in the western world interests,they were developed and are perpetuated to preserve past gains,enhance present gains,and ensure future gains.

historically, as you progress beyond time, you will eventually encounter a powerful triad of religions:christianity,islam and judaism.all of these religions have had strong mass appeal and persuasive powers,and they remain the most powerful tools in the western world's arsenal of controlling forces.these religions serve as the ultimate sentry for western world interests.they were developed and are perpetuated to preserve past gains, enhance present gains,and ensure future gains.

In "Honest Numbers and Democracy", Walter Williams offers a revealing history of policy analysis in the federal government and a scorching critique of what's wrong with social policy analysis today. Williams, a policy insider who witnessed the birth of domestic policy analysis during the Johnson administration, contends that the increasingly partisan U.S. political environment is vitiating both "honest numbers" - the data used to direct public policy - and, more importantly, honest analysts, particularly in the White House. Drawing heavily on candid off-the-record interviews with political executives, career civil servants, elected officials and Washington-based journalists, Williams documents the steady deformation of social policy analysis under the pressure of ideological politics waged by both the executive and legislative branches. Beginning with the Reagan era and continuing into Clinton's tenure, Williams focuses on the presidents' growing penchant to misuse and hide numbers provided by their own analysts to assist in major policy decisions. "Honest Numbers and Democracy" is the first book to examine in-depth the impact of the electronic revolution, its information overload, and rampant public distrust of the federal government's data on the practice of policy analysis. A hard-hitting account of the factors threatening the credibility of the policymaking process, this book will be required reading for policy professionals, presidential watchers, and anyone interested in the future of U.S. democracy.

Is the federal government inept? Walter Williams says yes. Thanks to Ronald Reagan's ill-conceived cutbacks, reliable policy advice is no longer available to the president. The result has been the S&L bailout, the HUD scandal - mismanagement on an unprecedented scale. In this book Willims aims to show how Reagan, the first truly anti-analytic president, decimated the ranks of policy analysts and special information experts in the name of trimming back big government. Williams sets the stage and provides programme notes that explain both the crucial role of advisors and policy analysts in presidential policy making and where the system has gone wrong. ""Governments succeed or fail on information, analysis, and advice"", Williams writes, ""but the system that provides our information analysis has been gutted"". In ""Mismanaging America"" he not only reveals the linkage between the US ailing policy process and the anaemic, inept government that created the S&L and HUD scandals, but proposes urgently needed reforms to fight America's decline.

After the 'big' decisions are made in legislatures and executive offices, what is done by those who implement and operate social service programs will determine their success or failure. Yet, over and over again, the managers of public organization disregard or handle poorly the critical problems involved in starting and developing new programs or in modifying existing ones. This book presents a new decision-making rationale - the implementation perspective - as the basic guide to social service program management. The cardinal principle is that the central focus of policy must be at the point of service delivery. Here is where management must redirect its attention. The demand is to concentrate on the hard, dirty, time-consuming work of building the local delivery capacity needed to provide better social services and to implement new program decisions over time. The "Implementation Perspective" is a message for our times. Even those who would continue the nation's effort to meet its social obligations are finding that simply calling for big new programs and more spending is no longer satisfying. Moreover, Proposition 13, the balanced budget movement, inflation, and compelling demands for new funds in such areas as energy, now squeeze social programs. New directions may have to come, not from new funds, but from rethinking and redirection and, more to the point, the better management of existing programs.