Recoding America
Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Onerous government software is spooking millions out of legal, financial, and medical aid they're entitled to, according to this impassioned debut from Pahlka, founder of the nonprofit Code for America. Contending that the government should think of people seeking social services as users on a platform, Pahlka calls on officials "to put the needs of government's many users ahead of the needs of the bureaucracy," and argues that such an overhaul would mean that unemployment checks get written sooner, Medicare works for both patients and doctors, and veterans stop feeling like they've been told "to go fuck themselves." Instead of outsourcing the planning and building of these new administrative systems to private tech companies, Pahlka, who founded the United States Digital Service under the Obama administration, calls for the creation of government positions "charged with digital strategy and product management." Though she admits that "increasing that government's capacity to function in a digital world will be long, hard work," Pahlka expresses optimism that decades of innovation by the private sector will help smooth the transition. Throughout, she enriches her lucid technical discussions with concise history lessons and vivid profiles of government employees pushing for reform. Comprehensive and persuasive, this call for change inspires.
