The 2025 government shutdown is unlike any prior shutdown in U.S. history. While most shutdowns temporarily halt government operations and furlough non-essential employees, the current crisis appears to be functioning as a strategic bureaucratic purge. On October 10, the administration announced that reductions in force (RIFs) had officially begun, signaling the start of a massContinue reading “When a Shutdown Becomes a Purge: How the 2025 Government Shutdown Is Reshaping the Bureaucracy”