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Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better Hardcover – June 13, 2023
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Named one of NPR's Best Books of 2023
Named one of Ezra Klein's "Books That Explain Where We Are in 2023," The New York Times
Learn more about Jennifer Pahlka's work at recodingamerica.us.
“The book I wish every policymaker would read.”
―Ezra Klein, The New York Times
A bold call to reexamine how our government operates―and sometimes fails to―from President Obama’s former deputy chief technology officer and the founder of Code for America
Just when we most need our government to work―to decarbonize our infrastructure and economy, to help the vulnerable through a pandemic, to defend ourselves against global threats―it is faltering. Government at all levels has limped into the digital age, offering online services that can feel even more cumbersome than the paperwork that preceded them and widening the gap between the policy outcomes we intend and what we get.
But it’s not more money or more tech we need. Government is hamstrung by a rigid, industrial-era culture, in which elites dictate policy from on high, disconnected from and too often disdainful of the details of implementation. Lofty goals morph unrecognizably as they cascade through a complex hierarchy. But there is an approach taking hold that keeps pace with today’s world and reclaims government for the people it is supposed to serve. Jennifer Pahlka shows why we must stop trying to move the government we have today onto new technology and instead consider what it would mean to truly recode American government.
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMetropolitan Books
- Publication dateJune 13, 2023
- Dimensions6.55 x 1 x 9.5 inches
- ISBN-101250266777
- ISBN-13978-1250266774
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Named one of NPR's Best Books of 2023
Named one of Ezra Klein's "Books That Explain Where We Are in 2023," The New York Times
“An indispensable new book...Recoding America isn’t just about tech. It’s about the American administrative state, and it’s a call for paring back the rigid rules that make it so hard to govern, and for rebuilding government’s ability to do its job effectively.”
―The Atlantic
“No one should be allowed to hold public office without reading this book.”
―Adam Grant, author of Think Again
“If you’ve ever wondered how government can get better, you’ll love Pahlka’s fresh take on the solutions to our bureaucratic dysfunction. Everyone can learn something from this wonderful book: How to strengthen democracies, how to lead with more wisdom, how to make government work for all of us. The future of our society―and even our planet―depends on our ability to recode the American government.”
―Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better
“A remarkably compelling, inspiring, and entertaining read about government technology…A valuable and enlightening book."
―Science
“Every American who cares about our democracy should read this book. We all know government doesn’t work the way it should, but we chalk it up to bureaucratic dysfunction. Taking us behind the scenes in the best and the worst of our bureaucracies, Pahlka lays bare not only what’s wrong, but what to do about it. An engaging and compelling read on a problem we can’t afford to ignore.”
―Eric Schmidt, former Chairman of Alphabet
“Democracy depends on trust, and trust depends on the actual delivery of government services, delivery that fails far too often. Recoding America should be on the reading list of every person who wants to make a difference in the world, and every public servant who wants to make government work.”
―Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America
“Recoding America will rattle some cages, but Pahlka’s engaging and vivid accounts of policy rhetoric crashing onto the rocks of implementation will convince you those cages need a little rattling. A compelling argument to focus on the underappreciated art of delivery in our digital era.”
―Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
“Jen Pahlka’s insight and experience make her the perfect author of this manifesto on how and why we must reset the relationships between people, policy, bureaucracy, and technology. Her call to action to understand people first, and to find ways to improve policy and systems, without always piling on more, should be in the front of the minds of every policymaker and project manager, working in the public sector.”
―Garlin Gilchrist, Lt. Governor of Michigan
“Government policy makers get promoted by crafting Big Ideas. But what American citizens need from their leaders today is smarter delivery of policies―and in particular, better digital delivery. Jen Pahlka, America’s former US Deputy Chief Technology Officer and a Silicon Valley insider, chronicles her years spent working to create a stronger, better, faster technology for the public sector, and what it taught her about how government works, when it doesn’t, and how our leaders could hack their way to a better, more efficient, and more trustworthy democracy.”
―Rana Foroohar, author of Makers and Takers, Homecoming
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Product details
- Publisher : Metropolitan Books (June 13, 2023)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1250266777
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250266774
- Item Weight : 1.15 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.55 x 1 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #21,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Having been the CIO for a College in Crisis, the CIO of a large State Board of Elections during the Pandemic and 2020 elections cycle, and currently CIO of a county-wide Public Transit Agency, I have lived the scenarios in this book. Like Jennifer, my background prior to focusing on Public Service was in technology start-ups and enterprise innovators and to say that it was shock to the system when I decided to become a CIO for NGOs would be an understatement. Don’t get me wrong -- Public service is a rewarding profession and my time spent in it as a CIO have been some of the most satisfying that I have had. But for anyone who has also worked in the private sector, the world of NGO I.T. can at times seem like one that could only be imagined by Dante. And like Virgil in Inferno, this book has the ability to be your initial guide to a better place for you and your organization.
And while this book may very well end up being the best non-fiction read for me this year, I am docking it one star, possibly unfairly. The reason for the 4-star rating is that like many of the incredibly gifted technology leaders I have come to know in my 30-plus years of hanging with them, Jennifer tends to get very process and detail-oriented about how both the technology and governance sausage is made. The challenge in doing so is the challenge that has existed for Technology Leaders since organizations recognized that they couldn’t live without them. Explaining all of this to people outside of the profession is HARD. And as result, there are many sections of this read that I know from personal experience people outside of the profession will struggle with. But what Jennifer covers here is so important and difficult to explain in any other way, I concede that it may not be possible to have made this easier or better to communicate to as many people as possible. I’ll let you, dear reader, be the final judge of that.
And finally, no… I will never look at Peanut Butter the same way again.
Highly, Highly Recommended.
She makes the point, compellingly, that code is policy -- implementation is policy. Until you can deliver the services that our policies and laws require, you haven't really made those laws or policies.
On the strength of her work at Code for America, Pahlka was recruited into a series of jobs in the federal government. She worked as Deputy CTO of the US under Todd Park during the Obama administration, and helped to create and institutionalize the US Digital Service.
Along the way, she learned a lot about why so much government-delivered technology is so bad. She learned what works in delivering systems and services that really serve citizens.
Recoding America digests those lessons and tells that story. It's full of great anecdotes -- the failure and resurrection of healthcare.gov, the signature Obama-era ACA enrollment website, is widely remembered, but you'll get an insider's view on what went wrong and how it got fixed. The ways in which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) learned from that experience, and how it has gotten better because of it, is hopeful.
Best of all, the book ends with concrete advice for government employees, citizens and technologists on what we can do better, and why. I found it genuinely inspiring and hugely interesting.
Five stars because there's not more stars.