Governance from the Bottom Up

About the Book

Perhaps the most difficult thing that human beings are called upon collectively to do is to run a government. Why do so many fail? There are 196 countries in the world, about 150 of them significant. At least 105 of them, briefly summarized here, are in deep trouble. “Deep trouble” is defined by wars, insurrections, active internal conflict, serious maldistribution of wealth, deep and widespread poverty, rampant corruption, serious lack of social services and public infrastructure, and an excess of plain old bumbling government incompetence, created and exacerbated by the governments themselves out of greed, viciousness, and an insatiable lust for power. This is the tragic record of government from the top down. It is therefore vital to strengthen the “bottom up” elements of national activity, and at the same time, people must try to point these stronger elements toward resistance to top-down authority. The new and growing hope is that decent people and organizations all over the world will increasingly rise up in their own defense and bring a new level of moderation and spirit of aid and service from the bottom up to these failing states that are their homes.

About the Author

Charles F. Bingman had a thirty-year career as a US federal government manager and executive. After retirement, he began a second career teaching public management at George Washington and Johns Hopkins Universities. Bingman has done consulting assignments in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, China, Japan, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Botswana, and other countries. He is the author of Why Governments Go Wrong (2006), Reforming China’s Government (2010), Changing Governments in India and China (2011), and Governments from Hell (2015). Bingman is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and of the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC.