ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the functioning of government, and specifically on the processes that are involved in translating societal demand into public action. The reforms in and of government since the 1880s have had lasting impact on the structure and functioning of government. The reforms are focused on changing the internal structure and functioning of government, they reflect a change of government's role and position in society. In the United States, as everywhere else, government reform has been a function of increased demand of the public at large for more public services. Since the seventeenth century, governmental organizations have been fashioned after the organizational structures of the military. However, both civil and military organizations in the public sector took the organizational structure of the Roman Catholic church as their model, which in turn had copied from the administrative practices of the Roman Empire.
