Donald Devine, "America's Way Back"

The Washington Post labeled Donald Devine as Ronald Reagan's "terrible swift sword of the civil service" when he served as Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during President Reagan's first term. The New York Times called him "the Grinch," and the Federal Times titled him the "Rasputin of the reduction in force" - all because he helped cut 100,000 bureaucratic jobs and save over $6 billion reducing generous benefits. Before and after his government service, Devine worked as an academic, teaching for fourteen years as Associate Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland and for ten years as a professor of Western Civilization at Bellevue University. He is currently Senior Scholar for The Fund for American Studies, an adjunct scholar at The Heritage Foundation, a writer, and a Washington policy consultant. He also serves as a Trustee of the Philadelphia Society.

Devine graduated from St. John's University New York with a B.B.A. in management and economics in 1959. He was granted an M.A. in political science from Brooklyn College City University of New York in 1965, and a Ph.D. in political science from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in 1967. He served as a member of the U.S. Army Reserve from 1960-1966. Devine is the author of eight books: The Attentive Public, The Political Culture of the United States, Does Freedom Work?, Reagan Electionomics, Reagan's Terrible Swift Sword, Restoring the Tenth Amendment, In Defense of the West, and America's Way Back.

This talk was recorded on April 3, 2014, and sponsored by the Federalist Society. Prof. Thomas Miles provided commentary.