Brian J. Cook – författare

In The Fourth Branch: Reconstructing the Administrative State for the Commercial Republic Brian J. Cook confronts head-on the accumulating derangements in the American constitutional system and how the administrative state has contributed to the problems, how it has been a key force in addressing the troubles, and how it can be reformed to serve the system better. The Fourth Branch is anchored in a powerful theory of regime design that guides a freshly comprehensive account of the historical development of successive political economies and administrative states in the United States and provides the normative grounding for more far-reaching constitutional change. Cook calls for a decisive, pattern-breaking response in the form of a constitutional redesign to accommodate a fourth branch, an administrative branch. The Fourth Branch shows that the creation of a fourth administrative branch is consistent with the history and traditions of American constitutionalism. Far more than that, however, the addition of a fourth branch could enhance American constitutionalism by making the separation of powers work better, increasing the likelihood that deliberative lawmaking will occur, strengthening civic capacity and public engagement in governance, and improving both accountability and coordination in the administrative state.

By stressing that the administrative state in its current form is both biased toward business and seriously undermined by subordination to the three constitutional branches, Cook contends that neither abandoning the administrative state nor more deeply constitutionalizing or democratizing it within the existing constitutional structure is sufficient to fully legitimate and capitalize on administrative power to serve the public interest. Rather, Cook argues that it is imperative to confront the reality that a fundamental reordering of constitutional arrangements is necessary if the American commercial republic is to recover from its growing disorder and progress further toward its aspirations of liberal justice and limited but vigorous self-rule.

“This powerful collection shows that ‘public value’ has come of age… Its reach has extended far beyond the Anglosphere from which it has emerged. And it provides a prism for strategic thinking about how governments are to deal with the grittiness of the contexts and challenge they currently face. This must-read volume sits at the cutting edge of these important developments.”

— Paul’t Hart, Professor of Public Administration, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

“Challenges to Public Value Creation is a wonderful addition to the growing literature on public value creation.”

— John M. Bryson, McKnight Presidential Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota, USA

“The purpose of government is to create public value. While this has become an increasingly accepted refrain in public policy, administration, and management, numerous questions remain about where, when, why, how, and by whom public value is created. With everything from philosophical and conceptual arguments to empirical analyses and cases the contributors to this noteworthy volume.... offer new ideas, reveal important insights, suggest exciting directions for research and practice, and ultimately give more substance and shape to the idea of public value creation.”

— Tina Nabatchi, Director, Program for the Advancement of Research on Confl ict & Collaboration, Syracuse University, USA

This volume examines fundamental questions about the public value of public decisions. More specifi cally, it seeks to assess whether all public decisions create public value, if it is possible to know what value for the public as a whole a government decision will create, and how government offi cials can justify their decisions in terms of public value. Leading experts bring a diverse array of perspectives on the normative, epistemological, and processual challenges to identifying, describing, measuring, and evaluating the public value claims that public offi cials often articulate in defending their decisions, and the results that citizens often seek. The book will appeal to scholars and students of public policy and public administration.

Brian J. Cook is Emeritus Professor of Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech, USA.