Accounts of attempts to remake public bodies: mergers, devolution, staffing overhauls and shared service centers. Each piece records the case made for the change, the money spent, and the measurable result several years later. Written for officials planning reorganizations and for the auditors who eventually assess them.
A losing bidder's protest to the Government Accountability Office can stop a federal contract cold. The mechanism runs on two statutes, a 100-day clock, and a narrow set of overrides.
Valentina Sokolov · August 21, 2026
Nine states hand congressional map-drawing to citizens instead of legislators. California and Texas just showed how a legislature gets around one anyway.
Valentina Sokolov · August 15, 2026
The 1883 Pendleton Act ended the spoils system by building an exam-based service — and every modern reform fight is still about the same seam: competence versus responsiveness.
Valentina Sokolov · July 23, 2026
Three decades of tying budgets to performance metrics produced better reports and barely changed allocations — the binding constraint was never the measurement.
James Wellington · June 30, 2026
Deferred resignation and reduction in force both shrink payrolls, but they select opposite people — volunteers with options versus the bottom of a retention register.
Valentina Sokolov · June 7, 2026