The State of the Nation or Information Systems Project Management

The State of the Nation: Government and the Quest for a Better Society, 1960-1995

Author: Derek Bok

Never before have Americans been so anxious about the future of their society. But rarely has anyone offered a clear statement about why, in a nation so prosperous, free, and stable, we tend to assume that the country is in dire straits and that the government can do little to help. This book is just such a statement, an eloquent assessment of where America stands, how our society has changed in the past half-century, and who or what is responsible for our current frustrations.

Derek Bok examines the nation's progress in five areas that Americans generally consider to be of paramount importance: economic prosperity, quality of life, opportunity, personal security, and societal values. He shows that although we are better off today in most areas than we were in 1960, we have performed poorly overall compared with other leading industrial nations. And when it comes to providing adequate health care at a reasonable cost, educating our young people for high-skilled jobs, alleviating poverty and urban blight, and reducing crime, our record has been dismal. Comparing the United States with other leading industrial nations on more than sixty key indicators, Bok shows that we rank below average in more than two-thirds of the cases and at the bottom in more than half.

What has caused this decline, and what can be done about it? In virtually all important areas of American life, Bok concludes, government policies have played a significant, often decisive role in accounting for our successes as well as our failures. But whereas others call for downsizing the federal government, Bok argues that government is essential to achieving America's goals. In short, Ronald Reaganwas only half right. Government is the problem. But it is also the most important part of the solution. By assessing the state of the nation and identifying the reasons for its current condition, this book helps set the agenda for improving America's performance in the future.

Publishers Weekly

Bok, president emeritus of Harvard and a professor at the Kennedy School of Government, knows that tables and statistics are the most subjective of objective facts. But in his attempt to pin down exactly what the state of the nation is and why Americans are so gloomy about it, Bok has accumulated hundreds of them. He measures the reality and the perception of five basic goals that Americans tend to agree on: economic growth; quality of life (e.g., healthy environment and cultural life); chance for advancement; security; and maintenance of certain basic values. Bok proves that, overall, America is closer to these five goals than it was 20 years ago, but the speed of its advancement is poor compared to other industrialized countries. Nowhere is that more obvious than with education, largely because the country spends "twice as much educating college students as it does training those who merely graduate from high school, and more than five times as much as it does on high school dropouts." Bok sees this as the first of two volumes, with the second aimed at probing "more deeply the question why our policies and programs so often fail to meet our expectations." Perhaps because it is more descriptive than prescriptive and because it is precisely not polemical, The State of the Nation is often dry. There are plenty of interesting facts and points that readers will want to store away for future reference, but the argument they add up to is rather diffuse. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Bok, president of Harvard University from 1971 to 1991, is a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Here he looks at five long-time concerns of Americans-prosperity, quality of life, opportunity, personal security, and values-to determine whether the pessimism rampant in the United States in the 1990s is justified. Changes since the 1950s are described and comparisons are made to other advanced industrial democracies. In areas where the United States seems to be performing poorly, Bok explores why and the role the government plays. Bok does a truly superior job of marshaling ideas and factual information from many fields of knowledge. His methodical presentation of this information is revealing, and the approach is a refreshing change from the unsubstantiated opinion that frequently characterizes debate on these topics. Essential reading for public policy scholars, this book will find a wide audience among educated readers generally. Highly recommended for all libraries.-Mary Jane Brustman, SUNY at Albany Libs.

Barbara Boyle Torrey

Bok has taken on a formidable task. He has surveyed the major social changes in the United States since World War II and examined not only the causes of each trend, but also the pattern of the combined changes. His survey ranges from the economy to qualify of life to opportunities to values. He examines in detail crime, race, education, children, the environment, the arts, health, poverty, and old age...What slowly emerges from the tapestry of data and research that Bok weaves is a wealthy nation that is underachieving. -- Barbara Boyle Torrey, Washington Monthly

Kirkus Reviews

Incredibly, Bok, who is president emeritus of Harvard University, manages to come off here as a Milquetoast, even though he is addressing controversial questions and providing intelligent commentary.

Do America's best days lie ahead or is the country in decline? Bok responds with a survey of five critical areas of social life—the economy, living conditions, opportunity, personal security, and values—to consider whether the optimists or pessimists should be believed. Evenhanded to a fault, he places issues in historical context, systematically compares conditions, trends, and government policies in the US to those of Western Europe and Japan, and presents the arguments of both sides. Two recurrent themes emerge: First, the comparatively high level of economic inequality in this country is exacerbated by public policy, and second, attempts by the federal government to achieve widely popular goals (such as economic growth and full employment) have been comparatively unsuccessful. The former drops from sight in the concluding chapters, but the latter provokes a potentially controversial assertion. Bok insists that many of the things Americans want cannot be achieved without government action; consequently, it must be part of the social equation, despite past lackluster performance. The real question, then, is why the US government is less able than its foreign counterparts to meet public expectations. This would seem to demand an answer, but Bok immediately returns to his self-assigned role as an observer above the fray. Throughout the book his analysis is a scholar's litany: "A careful look at the record suggests that both the gloom and the euphoria have been greatly overdone." To reinforce his balanced approach, both sides of every issue considered in the text are rehearsed once again in a chapter titled "Summing Up"; the following chapter is actually titled "Questioning the Verdict."

Is it better to scream or go to sleep in the face of pathological moderation?

Table of Contents:

	Introduction	1
1	The Economy	19
2	Scientific Research and Technology	37
3	Education	55
4	Labor Market Policies	73
5	Living Conditions	95
6	The Environment	116
7	Encouraging the Arts	134
8	Child Policies	157
9	Race	174
10	Career Opportunities	191
11	Violent Crime	217
12	Health Care	235
13	Regulating the Workplace	256
14	The Burdens of Old Age	276
15	Individual Freedom under Law	295
16	Personal Responsibility	313
17	Helping the Poor	334
18	Summing Up	359
19	Questioning the Verdict	390
20	The Role of Government	405
	Notes	427
	Index	477

New interesting textbook: Desarrollo de Organización y Cambio

Information Systems Project Management

Author: Gholamreza Torkzadeh

Until now, books available for information systems project management focused either on information techonology or production and operations. Information Systems Project Management reflects new thinking about the need for balance between technology topics and production-operations issues needed to manage successful IS projects.