Bureaucratically Incorrect

Offers an analysis of Soviet Jewish society after the death of Joseph Stalin At the beginning of the twentieth century, more Jews lived in the Russian Empire than anywhere else in the world. After the Holocaust, the USSR remained one of the world’s three key centers of Jewish population, along with the United States and Israel. While a great deal is known about the history and experiences of the Jewish people in the US and in Israel in the twentieth century, much less is known about the experiences of Soviet Jews. Understanding the history of Jewish communities under Soviet rule is essential to comprehending the dynamics of Jewish history in the modern world. Only a small number of scholars and the last generation of Soviet Jews who lived during this period hold a deep knowledge of this history. Jews in the Soviet Union, a new multi-volume history, is an unprecedented undertaking. Publishing over the next few years, this groundbreaking work draws on rare access to documents from the Soviet archives, allowing for the presentation of a sweeping history of Jewish life in the Soviet Union from 1917 through the early 1990s. Volume 5 offers a history of Soviet Jewry from the demise of the brutal dictator Joseph Stalin to the military confrontation between Israel and Arab states in 1967 known as the Six-Day War. Both historic events deeply affected Soviet Jews, who numbered over two million in the wake of the Holocaust and still formed at that point the second-largest Jewish population in the world. Stalin’s death led to the release of political prisoners and the reduction of the level of fear in society. The economy was growing and conditions of life were improving. At the same time, the state had doubts about the loyalty of the Jewish population and imposed limitations on their educational and career prospects. The relatively liberal period associated with Nikita Khrushchev’s “thaw” after the Stalinist bitter frost became a prelude to the years when contemplation about, or practical steps toward, emigration to Israel or elsewhere began to play an increasing role in the lives of Soviet Jews. In this pioneering analysis of the “thaw” years in Soviet Jewish history, Gennady Estraikh focuses both on the factors driving emigration and dissent, and on those Jews who were able to attain a high standard of living, and to rise to esteemed positions in managerial, academic, bohemian, and other segments of the Soviet elite.

THE WAY EXECUTIVES USE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES IS DYING. Are you ready to get the most out of what comes next? The longstanding business model of professional services is facing change unlike any other in its century-long history. Over the next 15 years, unrelenting advances in technology, data science, and corporate culture will fundamentally disrupt your “trusted advisors.” Exciting opportunities lie ahead for forward-thinking organizations, while disastrous threats await any buyer that’s unprepared to adopt a new service delivery model. MICROSLICES is a timely, eye-opening look at the changes that are already revolutionizing the professional services industry. It provides specific steps you must take as a buyer of those services to protect your organization from wasted consulting fees, outdated advice, and generic solutions. Consulting is dying. Your top adversaries will react to the future; will you? “Microslices is a great dive into understanding exactly why the boom in data sciences will completely change the way you use professional services. It’s, quite simply, a must-read.” Keith Ferrazzi author of Never Eat Alone and the #1 NY Times bestseller Who’s Got Your Back “The book provides an excellent view into the future for everyone that provides or utilizes professional services. It predicts the changes coming to the industry and how to embrace the changes in order to increase productivity and profitability.” Major General Steven W. Smith (Ret.) CEO of S.W. Smith & Associates For more information about Big Sky, visit www.bigskyassociates.com.

Legislating Bureaucratic Change is an in-depth analysis of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. This legislation, hailed by many as the major domestic achievement of the Carter presidency, was a far-reaching attempt to change and control the massive federal bureaucracy. Not since the passage of the Pendleton Act in 1883 had so major a reform been attempted. Legislating Bureaucratic Change reveals this process of change and reform. As a collection, its chapters advance our understanding of the dimensions and problems of bureaucratic change. In a larger sense, by focusing on civil service reform as public policy, the book also provides valuable insights into the ability of American policy institutions to address critical public problems.

Chachi: is not a taxi. It is something that feels; and emotes . . . New Delhi: A melting pot. A crucible of people, cultures, lifestyles. Home to the politicians that lead this country. And to the taxiwallahs that more often than not charge a hundred per cent extra than the legitimate fare. U.P.: The badlands. Notorious for dacoits, land usurpation; and other misdeeds. This is the New Delhi and U.P that we travel through with the most lovable of all symbols associated with the city – the Ambassador car. Travails with Chachi is a ‘Never-before-Seen’ Delhi. It is a Delhi seen through the eyes of the Ambassador taxi – an ubiquitous symbol that for many decades defined Delhi. Plodding through Lutyens’ Delhi on a maximum speed of 40 kmph Chachi (the protagonist of this book) sees all; experiences all; and tells all. The taxi belches; makes offensive noises; and is a tell-tale. And so the characters that Chachi plys on her ample ‘back’seat – dhoti-clad paan-chewing portly politicians indulging in ‘suitcase politics; Ganesh brand beedi chain-smokers; the Nakli Singh Yadavs who only want to induct people into politics – that is already home to bus conductors and convicted dacoits; the belan brandishing Bablu ki Ma; and Mehnath Singh – who is far removed from the name bestowed upon him by his parents that implies ‘hard work’. The lands that Chachi travels through is peppered with those that breathe and abuse concurrently; those that revel and live off name-dropping; the inventors of lyrical slogans - Tilak, tarazu, talwar aur ch****; sab ko maro joota chaar!; and those that make a living - doing nothing. This is New Delhi. This is U.P. This is Chachi’s world.

From the mid-1940s, state housing authorities in Australia built large housing estates to enable home ownership by working-class families, but the public housing system they created is now regarded as broken. Contemporary problems with the sustainability, effectiveness and reputation of the Australian public housing system are usually attributed to the influence of neoliberalism. Housing, Neoliberalism and the Archive offers a challenge to this established ‘rise and fall’ narrative of post-war housing policy. Kathleen Flanagan uses Foucauldian ‘archaeology’ to analyse archival evidence from the Australian state of Tasmania. Through this, she reveals that the difference between past and present knowledge about the value, role and purpose of public housing results from a significant discontinuity in the way we think and act in relation to housing policy. Flanagan describes the complex system of ideas and events that underpinned policy change in Tasmania while telling a story about state housing policy, neoliberalism and history that has resonance for many other places and times. In the process, she shows that the story of public housing is more complicated than the taken-for-granted neoliberal narrative and that this finding has real significance for the dilemmas in public housing policy that face us in the here and now.

This book analyzes the state of the bureaucracy in the eastern part of Germany prior to reunification and discusses changes that occurred after 1990. The contributors review the impact of these changes on the bureaucracy and other sectors of society where a new ethic seems to have emerged, guiding practitioners involved in restructuring East German institutions. Issues discussed include: the performance of the administrative structures, the transformation of the Eastern German university system, the various affirmative action policies implemented after 1990, compensation to victims of abuses by the former socialist regime, changes in public relations policy after 1990, and an ethic guiding the models of restructuring institutions for industrialized and developing countries.