Project Gutenberg 2010-01-09 Public domain in the USA. 63 Reynolds, Mack 1917 1983 McCord, Guy Reynolds, Dallas McCord Mallory, Mark Schelling, George 1938 Schelling, George Luther Schelling, George L. Schelling Expediter Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Expediter" by Mack Reynolds is a science fiction novella written during the early 1960s. The story centers around Josip Pekic, a young man living in the fictionalized People's Democratic Dictatorship of Transbalkania, as he navigates a political landscape marked by bureaucracy and inefficiency. The novella examines the concept of an "expediter," a person given extraordinary authority to identify and eliminate systemic bottlenecks within the government and society, ultimately reflecting on the roles of average citizens in a command economy. In the narrative, Josip is abruptly taken from his home in the middle of the night by state officials who thrust him into the role of an expediter. Initially confused and hesitant, he gradually comes to understand the implications of his new position, which grants him immense power to expose inefficiencies within the government. However, as he begins to question the authority of those in charge, he realizes the complexities of governance and the limitations of political leaders. His journey explores themes of individual agency, the value of technical expertise over political authority, and the challenges inherent in a controlled state. As he discovers the realities of Transbalkania, he becomes an unintended catalyst for change, ultimately leading to his decision to defect to the West after encouraging a fundamental shift in perspective among his compatriots about the role of politicians in industry and governance. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Science fiction Political fiction Balkan Peninsula -- Fiction PS Text Browsing: Literature Browsing: Politics Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction 82883 82892 2024-09-13T07:33:33.910934 2023-09-13T12:15:38.969885 text/html text/html 79489 2010-01-09T04:55:16 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 170617 2010-01-09T04:55:16 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 221503 2024-09-13T07:33:37.403960 application/epub+zip 222181 2024-09-13T07:33:35.239947 application/epub+zip 75793 2024-09-13T07:33:34.336938 application/epub+zip 281503 2024-09-13T07:33:39.155903 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 274042 2024-09-13T07:33:36.927903 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 128516 2022-09-14T09:01:35.471374 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 75899 75796 2024-09-13T07:33:33.611910 2023-09-13T12:15:38.744892 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 75829 2010-01-09T04:55:16 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 29141 2010-01-09T04:55:16 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 19659 2024-09-13T07:33:39.291886 application/rdf+xml 9812 2024-09-13T07:33:34.849894 image/jpeg 2764 2024-09-13T07:33:34.677978 image/jpeg 216110 2024-09-13T07:33:33.930958 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia