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William Nelson reinterprets nineteenth-century American history as a struggle between majority rule and minority rights. From this fresh point of view, he traces the roots of American bureaucracy. Nelson analyzes the majority-minority tension form the Jacksonian revolution of... Read Full Overview

This innovative book argues that the mugwump reformers who built early bureaucracies cared less about enhancing government efficiency than about restraining the power of majoritarian political leaders in Congress and the executive branch.