Book Reviews

Robert E. Goodin's book <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=IuJRAQAAIAAJ&q&quot; target="_blank"><i>Manipulatory

<p>Last month, Jonathan Rauch published a sincere and well-written defense of political machines, entitled "Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy" (Brooking Institution Press; <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2015/political-realism">availab… free as a PDF or e-book</a>).

<p>Lee Drutman’s <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Business-America-Lobbying-Corporations-Politicize…; target="_blank">The Business of America is Lobbying: How Corporations Became Politicized and Politics Became More Corporate</a></i> (2015) is an excellent book about corporate lobbying at the federal level.

Last week, Edward B. Foley, who directs Election Law @ Moritz<em>, </em>Ohio
State's law school, put online <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2612001&quot; target="_blank">the
draft of a paper</a> entitled "Voters as Fiduciaries." The paper
makes the argument that voters should not be voting their personal
interests, but should instead be expressing their best judgment of

<br><b>NEW!</b><a href="publications/lobbying"><i><b> The Regulation of Local Lobbying.</i></b></a> The first book on the subject of local government lobbying is now available. By Robert Wechsler, Director of Research-Retired.<br>

<br /><a href="publications/LGEP-Nutshell"><i><b>Local Government Ethics Programs in a Nutshell,</i></b></a> a free 27-page introduction to the topic. By Robert Wechsler, Director of Research-Retired.<br>
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<p>This is the fourth of four blog posts on Zephyr Teachout's excellent new book, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=dctwBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=one…; target="”_blank”"><em>Corruption in America</em></a>: <em>From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens United</em> (Harvard Univ. Press).<br />
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<p>This is the third of four blog posts on Zephyr Teachout's excellent new book, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=dctwBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=one…; target="”_blank”"><em>Corruption in America</em></a>: <em>From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens United</em> (Harvard Univ. Press).<br />
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An essay of mine has appeared in <a href="http://www.mesharpe.com/mall/results1.asp?ACR=pin&quot; target="”_blank”">the new
issue of the journal <i>Public
Integrity</a>,</i> a special issue entitled "Changing of the
Guard: The 75th American Society for Public Administration
Anniversary Symposium: Visions and Voices of Ethics in the
Profession" (Fall 2014, Vol. 16, No. 4). Since the journal is

I just finished reading a masterpiece of a novel about Nuoro, a town
in Sardinia:  Salvatore Satta's <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Day-Judgment-Salvatore-Satta/dp/0374526605&quot; target="”_blank”">The
Day of Judgment</a>, </i>translated from the Italian by Patrick
Creagh. It's a very wise, witty, and sad novel. Here are a few
pearls of wisdom that shed light on local government ethics.<br>
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Although twenty years old and about the state level, Alan
Rosenthal's <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=pcOyJfxNwfwC&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>The
Third House: Lobbyists and Lobbying in the States</i></a> (CQ
Press, 1993) provides valuable food for thought about lobbying at
the local level. This first of two posts looks at such topics as the importance of relationships to lobbying and what makes local lobbying so different.<br>