In less than a month since returning to office, Trump has overseen a rapid assault on the federal government—initiating mass firings of federal employees and handing over unprecedented powers to Elon Musk’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency, all without the approval of Congress. As James Goodwin explained last year, this plan was laid out in detail in a 900-page playbook produced by Project 2025. “Degrading the institutions of Congress and the federal judiciary were important first steps” in this conservative revolution, Goodwin notes. But the “real prize” has been the administrative state itself.
This week’s reading list examines the history and significance of this lesser understood arm of U.S. government. Several contributors have themselves served in the administrative state: K. Sabeel Rahman, former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs; Mike Konczal, former special assistant on the National Economic Council; and Lisa Heinzerling, former policy administrator in the Environmental Protection Agency.
They illuminate why federal agencies matter—not just as bureaucracies carrying out the day-to-day business of government, but as bulwarks against executive overreach and vehicles of the public good—and also assess their flaws and limits. Others confront politics, showing how Democrats embraced criticism of government inefficiency well before the Reagan revolution; uncovering the congressional dysfunction that got us here; and debating a way forward.
