The Tools of Government
Workbooks

Introduction

These workbooks are being prepared as a supplement to The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance, edited by Lester M. Salamon and published by Oxford University Press (April 2002).

The "workbooks" provide instructional materials designed to acquaint students, policy professionals, and public managers with the operations of some of the major tools of public action. Included here are workbooks for six such tools: social regulation, insurance, tax expenditures, tort liability, and loans and loan guarantees. These workbooks still have some gaps but should be useful for instructional purposes.

Each workbook uses a particular government program to illustrate the operation of the particular tool that the program embodies. The workbook includes a brief definition and explanation of the primary features of the tool, a list of documents and forms related to the operation of the tool in the context of a specific government program, a brief description of each of the categories of documents, a set of study questions, and the actual documents or excerpts from the documents.

Most of the workbooks were initially prepared by the author of the corresponding chapter in The Tools of Government, in collaboration with the editor. Users will need Adobe Acrobat Reader software to access the documents. The software can be downloaded free of charge from the Adobe website at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/

The tools and associated programs covered in the workbooks are noted below. Simply click on the highlighted tool name to go directly to an introductory section of the workbook. There you will find links to the documents.