Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Against the profit motive: the salary revolution in American government, 1780-1940

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Yale Law Library Series in Legal History and ReferencePublication details: New Haven Yale University Press 2013Description: xi, 568 pISBN:
  • 9780300194753
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 331.28135173 P2A4
Summary: In America today, a public official’s lawful income consists of a salary. But until a century ago, the law frequently provided for officials to make money on a profit-seeking basis. Prosecutors won a fee for each defendant convicted. Tax collectors received a percentage of each evasion uncovered. Naval officers took a reward for each ship sunk. Numerous other officers were likewise paid for “performance.” This book is the first to document the American government’s for-profit past, to discover how profit-seeking defined officialdom’s relationship to the citizenry, and to explain how lawmakers—by ultimately banishing the profit motive in favor of the salary—transformed that relationship forever. (http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300194753)
Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.
Star ratings
    Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)
Holdings
Item type Current library Item location Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode
Books Vikram Sarabhai Library Rack 17-A / Slot 614 (0 Floor, West Wing) Non-fiction General Stacks 331.28135173 P2A4 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 188213

In America today, a public official’s lawful income consists of a salary. But until a century ago, the law frequently provided for officials to make money on a profit-seeking basis. Prosecutors won a fee for each defendant convicted. Tax collectors received a percentage of each evasion uncovered. Naval officers took a reward for each ship sunk. Numerous other officers were likewise paid for “performance.” This book is the first to document the American government’s for-profit past, to discover how profit-seeking defined officialdom’s relationship to the citizenry, and to explain how lawmakers—by ultimately banishing the profit motive in favor of the salary—transformed that relationship forever.
(http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300194753)

There are no comments on this title.

to post a comment.