Politicians: The Worst Kind of People to Run the Government, Except for All the Others (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781936599530)

Bruce K. Chapman is an author and former elected and appointed official who is Chairman of the Board of Discovery Institute, a public policy think tank in Seattle. His latest book is Politicians: The Worst Kind of People to Run the Government, Except for All the Others (2018). It critiques the growing power of unelected "middlemen" in politics--bureaucracy, media, academics and special interests-and the loss of responsibility by the people's elected representatives.
Born in Evanston, Illinois (December 1, 1940), Mr. Chapman attended public schools in Monmouth, Illinois and graduated from Harvard College, with honors, in 1962. At Harvard, he and George Gilder started a magazine, later moved to Washington, DC, called Advance: A Journal of Republican Thought. In 1965/66 Mr. Chapman was an editorial writer at The New York Herald Tribune. He authored (with George Gilder) The Party That Lost its Head (published 1966), an indictment of the 1964 Goldwater campaign's abandonment of the civil rights issue and a call for "conservative answers" to public problems, rather than mere opposition to liberal policies.
Mr. Chapman's book, The Wrong Man in Uniform (1967), and its paperback successor (Our Unfair and Obsolete Draft), made a popular and influential case against conscription and for an all-volunteer military. In 1969, he authored the report of the Washington State Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Civil Disorders.
Mr. Chapman was an elected member of the Seattle City Council (1971-75), innovating on historic preservation and championing parks development. As Secretary of State (1975-81) he headed Washington State's Bicentennial Commission, promoted the teaching of civics and wrote a statistical report comparing the 50 states. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor in 1980. Appointed by President Reagan as Director of the U.S. Census Bureau (1981-83), he later served on the White House Staff as Deputy Assistant to the President (1983-85), where, among other things, he promoted family policy initiatives. In 1985 he was nominated and confirmed as U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations Organizations in Vienna, where he served until 1988. He was a Hudson Institute fellow in 1989/90 in Indianapolis, before founding Discovery Institute in Seattle.
Mr. Chapman and his wife, Sarah, live in Seattle, where their two grown sons and their families also reside.