Creating Public Policy: The Chairman’s Memoirs of Four Presidential Commissions

An insider’s account of how presidential commissions create public policy for privacy protection, energy accountability, and privatization. Linowes describes with candor the process designed by private citizens, which culminates in needed legislation. L L This story is rich in testimony from public and private collectors of personal data who were pressed, under oath, to reveal how they obtain, use, and abuse the information. Two energy commissions reveal their discovery of the theft of oil on federal and Indian lands by major oil companies. The second energy panel resolved a major political gridlock by disproving allegations of fraud and dishonesty. The privatization effort demonstrates the growing need to separate the functions of government and business. These insights into commission life will be of value to students and scholars of modern American government as well as the interested public.

DAVID F. LINOWES is Boeschenstein Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a founding director of Chris Craft Industries, Inc., and was Chairman and CEO of Mickelberry Communications Incorporated as well as a Director of several other major corporations. In addition to his work on presidential commissions, Professor Linowes undertook economic missions on behalf of the U.S. government to a number of developing countries. He is the author of Managing Growth Through Acquisition, Strategies for Survival, The Corporate Conscience, and Privacy in America.