Book Review: "The Broken Contract" - How Reinventing Bureaucracy Can Save Democracy

Muddassar Ahmed explains why for the survival of democracy, governments must roll back excessive bureaucracy.

A century ago, we rarely heard about large amounts of money wasted by government mismanagement. Today, we find news articles every week that mention how hundreds of million dollars are being squandered in the public sector or paid as a cost overrun.

People often think you need drama to precipitate significant change. They don’t realise that just tweaking things can have a massive impact; making micro changes can lead to significant improvements. The Japanese call this Kaizen, and it has long been a part of business management. He doesn’t use the term but, this is exactly what Saqib Qureshi advocates in his new book The Broken Contract: Making Our Democracies Efficient, Representative, and Accountable.