Government has become a refuge, and a relic, of America’s crumbling middle-class economy. As the public and private worlds of work have veered in different directions, the gaps between them are warping government work in unintended ways.

Three decades of economic turbulence have rendered American workplaces more demanding and less secure, more rewarding for high-end workers and punishing for workers without advanced skills. This workplace revolution, however, has largely bypassed government. Public employees—representing roughly one-sixth of the total workforce—still work under the conditions of dampened risk and constrained opportunity that marked most of the economy during the middle-class boom following World War II.

The divergent paths of public and private employment have intensified a long-standing pattern: elite workers spurn public jobs, while less skilled workers cling to government work as a refuge from a harsh private economy. The first trend creates a chronic talent deficit in the public sector. The second trend makes the government workplace rigid and resistant to change. And both contribute to shortfalls in public-sector performance.

The Warping of Government Work documents government’s isolation from the rest of the American economy and arrays the stark choices we confront for narrowing, or accommodating, the divide between public and private work.

Prizes

Nominated for Herbert A. Simon Book Award 2009

The Warping of Government Work offers an intriguing view of the impact that changes in the private economy have had on both the nature of government jobs and challenges to government performance. This eminently readable book is a significant contribution to discussions about effective government. -- Judy Feder, Professor of Public Policy, Georgetown University
In The Warping of Government Work, John Donahue presents valuable insights into the human capital crises compromising the quality of government. The premise of the book—that the quality and durability of American life depends on good government, which, in turn, requires highly skilled and talented individuals—is compelling. Donahue easily convinces us that the process of recruiting, choosing, and retaining skilled persons in government is critical. The Warping of Government Work advances the understanding of a substantial problem facing government at all levels. -- Stephen Goldsmith, Daniel Paul Professor of Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government, and former mayor of Indianapolis, IN

John D. Donahue is Raymond Vernon Lecturer in Public Policy and Director of the Weil Program in Collaborative Governance at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.