Memory and Institutional Amnesia in Government examines the way in which government suffers from institutional amnesia, meaning that it cannot hold or use memory of the past. Consequently, a great deal of important knowledge is erased and those who work in government find themselves repeating the mistakes of the past.

The book explores these issues through a comparison of the public services of Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom in which the authors establish the causes of institutional amnesia, analyze its effects, and recommend a series of treatments that might remedy the problems that it causes.