Lightwork Prof
Totaly Pavlina
Dr. Paul C. Light is NYU Wagner's Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service and founding principal investigator of the Global Center for Public Service, Before joining NYU, Dr. Light served as the Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, founding director of its Center for Public Service, and vice president and director of the Governmental Studies Program. He has served previously as director of the Public Policy Program at the Pew Charitable Trusts and associate dean and professor of public affairs at the University of Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
Light is the author of 25 books, including works on social entrepreneurship, the nonprofit sector, federal government reform, public service, and the baby boom. His most recent book is The Government-Industrial Complex: Tracking the True Size of Government, 1984-2019 (Oxford University Press, 2019), Government by Investigation: Presidents, Congress, and the Search for Answers, 1945-2012 (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). His award-winning books include The President's Agenda: Domestic Policy Choice from Kennedy to Clinton (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982, 1998), Thickening Government: Federal Hierarchy and the Diffusion of Accountability (Brookings Institution Press, 1995), The Tides of Reform: Making Government Work, 1945-1995 (Brookings Institution Press, 1997), and A Government Ill Executed: The Decline of the Federal Service and How to Reverse It (Harvard University Press, 2008). A Government Ill Executed received the American Political Science Association's Herbert Simon Award in 2008 as the most important book on public administration in the preceding three-to-five years upon publication. Light's work earned the American Political Science Association's John Gauss Award in 2015 for exemplary career service in political science and public administration. Light is also a co-author of an American government textbook, Government by the People. His research interests include: bureaucracy, civil service, Congress, entitlement programs, the executive branch, government reform, nonprofit effectiveness, organizational change, and the political appointment process.
This course provides an in-depth exploration of social entrepreneurship and innovation as a set of promising pathways to drive social change across sectors. The course looks at different approaches to creating and implementing ventures and initiatives within startups, corporate environments (intrapreneurship), nonprofit organizations, and the public sector. Students will explore social entrepreneurship from its origins to present-day practices, examine what differentiates effective interventions, and contemplate the challenges of social entrepreneurship. This course fosters a practical and reflective approach to designing and leading initiatives for social change. Students will develop skills aligning a social impact idea with community needs and a market opportunity and practice using tools that operationalize their ideas. By weaving critical thinking, practical tools, and real-world examples throughout the course, students are prepared not only to understand the role of social entrepreneurship as part of a toolkit for social change, but also to engage as a social entre(intra)preneur and innovator.
September 11 brought a dramatic surge in what Americans expected of themselves and their civic institutions. Americans reported increased interest in all aspects of public life, including voting, volunteering, and careers in government. Three years later, however, the interest has yet to produce a parallel increase in civic activity. This course will provide undergraduate students an opportunity to examine the promise of public service embedded in American history and contemporary events, while exploring the perils of participation that may explain the public's reluctance to actually engage. The course will also explore competing definitions of public service, as well as proposals for increasing civic engagement through various forms of national service, including the draft. The course will feature occasional guest lectures by leading public servants in New York City, as well as student research on just what public service means today.
Completed a research report "What Americans Still Want from Government Reform". NYU's GovLab and the Tandon School will be publishing the report and leading the release with the John Brademas Center at NYU DC, the University of Chicago's Center for Effective Government, and the Brookings Center for Effective Public Management as co-sponsors.
Paul Light's co-authored American government textbook was released on September 1 by Pearson Education. This is the 28th edition in the long-running textbook, which dates back to 1952 when James MacGregor Burns joined with Thomas Peltason to write the first edition. The current edition is subtitled, "Structure, Action, and Impact" as part of a broad rewrite designed to emphasize the social change/policy process. Paul is the primary author of the five chapters--American federalism, Congress, the presidency, bureaucracy & public policy process, and economic & international policy.
The 2016 presidential election will likely feature two tough questions about government reform, writes Paul C. Light. First, should the next president cut federal programs to reduce the power of government, or maintain existing programs to deal with important problems? Second, should the next president winnow the federal agenda to a smaller set of priorities, or accept the current priorities and focus on reducing federal inefficiency?
Public administration scholars answer the question: What might Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison, who between October 1787 and August 1788 penned the Federalist Papers promoting ratification of the U.S. Constitution, add now to the pamphlets, in view of changes in the administration of our government over the past two and a quarter centuries? Are these foundational essays still relevant? How might key pamphlets be updated to reflect new realities?
Federalist No. 85 offers a synopsis of the overall case for the Constitution. Describing the dangers of a nation without a national government as an "awful spectacle," the paper provides a rebuttal to the active opposition to ratification. Focusing entirely on the operations of government, this essay examines contemporary challenges to faithfully executing the laws and offers an analysis of comprehensive reforms for creating greater accountability, efficiency, and productivity.
Has the role of the social entrepreneur been glorified as the primary driver of social breakthrough? Have we neglected the important role that all change agents play? What must be done to create the networks that create so many breakthroughs? How does the breakthrough cycle actually work? How do we strengthen the infrastructure that supports social change organizations in their quest? Driving Social Change is the ultimate introduction to the many steps needed to challenge and replace the prevailing wisdom.
Based on the latest research from author, professor, and Washington Post online columnist Paul C. Light, Driving Social Change confronts head-on the seemingly eternal questions of solving tough, even intractable, social problems. Starting with the definition of social entrepreneurship as a powerful driver of social change, it goes well beyond the concept to a more detailed assessment of the "breakthrough" cycle with several other drivers. Along the way, the book focuses on the need to protect past social breakthroughs from complacency and counterattack.
If our purpose is to change the world, writes Light, we must concentrate on every driver possible, not just the ones we can see. To that end, the book highlights alternative paths to creating social breakthrough and provides actionable advice, exploring:
As much as social entrepreneurship is a wondrous, inspirational act, even more extraordinary is the creation of durable social impact through whatever means necessary. Driving Social Change tells us that we should be less concerned about the tools of agitation and more concerned about the disruption and replacement of the status quo.
The federal government's "quiet crisis" of the 1980s has become the "deafening crisis" of the early twenty-first century. Virtually every measure of the state of the public service as envisioned by Alexander Hamilton has worsened over the past two decades. This lecture outlines Hamilton's seven characteristics of an energetic federal service and examines recent trends in its decline. Although the federal service still executes an enormous agenda of important missions, it is increasingly frustrated in its work.
The federal government is having increasing difficulty faithfully executing the laws, which is what Alexander Hamilton called "the true test" of a good government. This book diagnoses the symptoms, explains their general causes, and proposes ways to improve the effectiveness of the federal government. Employing Hamilton's seven measures of an energetic federal service, Paul Light shows how the government is wanting in each measure.
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