Experts in Government
The Deep State from Caligula to Trump and Beyond

This Element shows that deep state has deep historical roots that have evolved since ancient Rome and China.

Donald F. Kettl (Author)

9781009478625, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 January 2024

90 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1 cm, 0.28 kg

From Caligula and the time of ancient Rome to the present, governments have relied on experts to manage public programs. But with that expertise has come power, and that power has long proven difficult to hold accountable. The tension between experts in the bureaucracy and the policy goals of elected officials, however, remains a point of often bitter tension. President Donald Trump labeled these experts as a 'deep state' seeking to resist the policies he believed he was elected to pursue—and he developed a policy scheme to make it far easier to fire experts he deemed insufficiently loyal. The age-old battles between expertise and accountability have come to a sharp point, and resolving these tensions requires a fresh look at the rule of law to shape the role of experts in governance.

1. Paradoxes
2. Power
3. Law
4. Knowledge
5. Institutions
6. Ripening
7. Sclerosis
References.

Subject Areas: Organizational theory & behaviour [KJU]