Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> American Government - General

Although estate and gift taxes raise a small fraction of federal revenues, they have become sources of increasing political controversy. This book is designed to inform the current policy debate and build a conceptual basis for future scholarship. The book contains eleven original studies of estate and gift taxes, along with discussants' comments. The essays provide background and historical information; analyze the optimal taxation of estates and gifts; examine the effects of the tax on charitable contributions, saving behavior, the distribution and level of wealth, tax avoidance and tax...

The trend toward greater decentralization of governance activities, now accepted as commonplace in the West, has become a worldwide movement. This international development--largely a product of globalization and democratization--is clearly one of the key factors reshaping economic, political, and social conditions throughout the world. Rather than the top-down, centralized decisionmaking that characterized communist economies and Third World dictatorships in the twentieth century, today's world demands flexibility, adaptability, and the autonomy to bring those qualities to bear. In this...

Eager to make government work better, cost less, and be more accountable, reformers are embracing a common prescription: consolidate and downsize government agencies to eliminate duplication and overlap. But is this prescription really a panacea for what ails government, or is the solution for better government performance more complex?

This book tackles that question by examining the three federal agencies responsible for supervising the nation's banksthe Federal Reserve Board (the Fed), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation...

Compared with other developed nations, the United States is unique in its high rates of both gun ownership and murder. Although widespread gun ownership does not have much effect on the overall crime rate, gun use does make criminal violence more lethal and has a unique capacity to terrorize the public. Gun crime accounts for most of the costs of gun violence in the United States, which are on the order of $100 billion per year. But that is not the whole story. Guns also provide recreational benefits and sometimes are used virtuously in fending off or forestalling criminal attacks. Given...

Two important events in 1997--the balanced-budget deal and the completion of the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR)--promise to shape U.S. military policy for the next several years. Unfortunately, they are at odds with each other. The balanced budget accord will result in a real level of defense spending that is 8 percent lower in 2002 than in 1998. But the proportionate cuts in personnel and weaponry that the QDR calls for are only about half that size. Moreover, the U.S. military is near the end of its so-called "procurement holiday" and will soon have to buy more equipment. In...

Since 1945, the United States has manufactured and deployed more than 70,000 nuclear weapons to deter and if necessary fight a nuclear war. Some observers believe the absence of a third world war confirms that these weapons were a prudent and cost-effective response to the uncertainty and fear surrounding the Soviet Union's military and political ambitions during the cold war. As early as 1950, nuclear weapons were considered relatively inexpensive providing "a bigger bang for a buck"and were thoroughly integrated into U.S. forces on that basis. Yet this assumption was never validated....

The 2004 Prune Book serves as a valuable resource for presidential appointees who manage the federal government on a daily basis. Introduced in 1988, Prune Books describe the positions appointees hold and the challenges they face. The books are distinguished by essays that give firsthand insight into such complex realities as managing the federal government for results and the appointments process itself.

This 2004 edition offers fresh approaches to the management aspects of an appointed position. One chapter, for example, provides a tool kit designed for, and essential to, incoming...