Introduction

Reforms in government are difficult under any circumstances. Reforms in government which depend upon the collaboration of the Congress and the executive can be almost impossible. And reforms in government which actually serve the purposes intended by their designers and advocates may be rarest of all. On one level, this book is a study of one recent effort which clearly survived the first two tests, and as of three years later, with the final results admittedly incomplete, appears to have been a substantial if not complete success with respect to the third.