This book addresses a seemingly simple question: Just how many people work for the federal government anyway? Congress and the president almost always answer the question by counting the number of full-time civil servants, which totaled 1.9 million when President Clinton declared the era of big government over in 1996.

But, according to Paul Light, the true head count that year was nearly nine times higher than the official numbers, with about 17 million people delivering goods and services on the government's behalf. Most of those employees are part of what Light calls the "shadow of government" - nonfederal employees working under federal contracts, grants, and mandates to state and local governments.

In providing the first estimates of the shadow work force, this book explores the reasons why the official size of the federal government has remained so small while the shadow of government has grown so large.