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Recent decades have shown the publics support for government plummet alongside political leaders credibility. This downward spiral calls for an ex- ploration of what has gone wrong. The questions What is government good at and What is gov- ernment not good at are critical ones and their answers should be the basis for good public policy and public administration. In What Is Government Good At Donald Savoie argues that politicians and public servants are good at generating and avoiding blame play- ing to a segment of the population to win the next election embracing and defending the status quo adding management layers and staff keeping min- isters out of trouble responding to demands from the prime minister and his ofce and managing a complex prime minister-centred organization. Conversely they are not as good at dening the broader public interest providing and recognizing evidence-based policy advice managing human and nancial resources with efciency and frugal- ity innovating and reforming itself being ac- countable to Parliament and to citizens dealing with non-performers paying sufcient attention to service delivery and implementing and evaluat- ing the impact of policies and programs. With wide implications for representative democracy What Is Government Good At is a persuasive analysis of an approach to government that has opened the door to those with the re- sources to inuence policy and decision-making while leaving average citizens on the outside looking in. What Is Government Good At is a major contri- bution to research on Canadian government and the threats to Canadian democracy and public administration. Savoie writes with skill and air and there are excellent and interesting insights in every chapter of this book. G. Bruce Doern Carleton University Donald J. Savoie holds the Canada Research Chair in public administration and governance at the Universit de Moncton and is the author of numerous books including Whatever Happened to the Music Teacher 1 M Q U P F A L L 2 0 1 5 P O L I T I C A L S C I E N C E P U B L I C A D M I N I S T R AT I O N What Is Government Good At A Canadian Answer donald j. savoie A thorough examination of where government succeeds and where it fails. S P E C I F I C AT I O N S September 2015 978-0-7735-4621-9 34.95T CDN 34.95T US 23.99 cloth 6 x 9 408pp 4 tables 2 diagrams Ebook available R E L AT E D I N T E R E S T Whatever Happened to the Music Teacher How Government Decides and Why 978-0-7735-4373-7 24.95T paper