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Paul Posner

Paul L. Posner

Contributor

Paul L. Posner, who died July 5, 2017, was director of the public-administration program at George Mason University. He also was a former president of the American Society for Public Administration.

Posner served for many years with the U.S. Government Accountability Office, where he was managing director for federal budget and intergovernmental relations, leading GAO's work on the long-term federal budget outlook and emerging challenges for public-sector finances at all levels of government.

Posner was the author of "The Politics of Unfunded Mandates,", published in 1998, and was the winner of the 2008 Martha Derthick Best Book Award given by the Section on Federalism and Intergovernmental Management of the American Political Science Association. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.

Policymakers are more polarized and driven by ideology than ever before, writes Paul L. Posner.
Financial pressures demand transformation but transformative government demands broad authority -- something federal policies make difficult.