THESE DAYS even your average Joe on the streets knows there's something behind the facade of big ideas and brave leadership called U.S. Government. Average Joe understands that grand policies emerge from purely political settlements between rapacious special interests; that the experts who package these policies often don't have much faith in what the boss is preaching; and that the warrantees on schemes to save our society tend to run out shortly after election day. But what he may not realize is that an entire species of not-so-evil people spend their lives working within the Washington system--lobbying, writing legislation, consulting, drafting regulations, and generally attending a lot of boozy receptions. At once victims of their environment and staunch defenders of the red tape that puts food on their tables, the journeyman laborers of government toil in virtual anonymity.

Brett Fromson graduated from Stanford in 1976 and decided immediately to ply his economics skills in the nation's capital. His book, Running and Fighting, recounts a year of successes and disappointments as an entry level aide in the White House and on Capitol Hill. Fromson observed carefully for someone who claims to have been totally naive of the day-to-day workings of government. He distinguishes clearly among the various characters who hustle through the long cool halls of Senate office buildings: youngsters on the make, veterans clinging to a particular committee or legislator, women struggling against traditional sexism, journalists and lobbyists tugging on jacket sleeves. The scenes are all set correctly, whether in the hip Old Ebbit Grill or the venerable Hay Adams dining room. Most everyone talks about the Redskins and wears seersucker suits in the summer.

Probing deeper into the ways of the government itself, Fromson illustrates how allegedly cooperative bodies strive to screw one another rather than serve the people. On the Hill, congressional committees sabotage hearings sponsored by other panels in a tragicomic battle for jurisdictional preeminence. Over in the executive branch, Smithers at State witholds information from Cunningham at Commerce because when Cunningham used to work at State they had clashed over who should attend an inter-agency conference sponsored by Treasury. Everyone writes memos and formulates operative alternatives, but most of the time elected officials hear only what they want to hear, while the bright young innovators shape up or ship out. Fromson's career peaked when he discovered a major flaw in some important Social Security legislation. The party leadership wanted the bill passed anyway, however, so the revelation was quashed, Fromson ostracized, and a literary career launched.

THE ROOKIE AUTHOR has chosen a suitable topic and manages to avoid the condemnations that would have made the book altogether trite. There is no easy solution for the inefficiency of American democracy; after seeing it up close, Fromson admits that. He pinpoints the underlying force propelling government: the self-interest of those the government employs. And he understands that on the one hand, self-interest can disguise itself as noble loyalty to a leader or an ideology, and that on the other, decent, hard-working folk will settle for compromise rather than risk a costly defeat at the hands of a political opponent. To succeed in Washington requires tremendous ambition; small tastes of power must compensate for long hours, high tension and modest pay. The winners, therefore, are people whose ultimate allegience is to themselves.

Can the system be improved? Only if the public elects large numbers of leaders intent upon making their mark by streamlining government. (The chances of that are slim.) The voters at large have almost no control over the advisers and administrators drawing federal salaries, let alone the single-minded lobby groups that build up private fiefdoms within the Congress and the executive branch. Bitter about his own inability to effect major changes during his brief tenure in Washington, the author doesn't push his analysis much past interpreting the motives of his former colleagues. In fact, now that he has abandoned public service, Fromson seems to have gotten serious about writing qua writing, and therein lies the problem with his book.

Rather than merely report what he saw and did for 12 months, the author attempts literary characters, dramatic scenes of personal confrontation and even a shocking plot twist. He fails on all counts, clouding his insights and raising questions about his truthfulness--questions which might not otherwise have come up.

Anyone who has ever spent some time on the Hill or in a federal agency will catch Fromson exaggerating left and right. For example, a housemate of the author describers her first day as a legislative intern: "I drafted legislation in the morning, lunched with the Senator at noon, and spent the afternoon in the Senate cloakroom counting votes with the lobbyists." The second day she probably argued a case before the Supreme Court, lectured the President on foreign policy, and climbed the Washington Monument.

EVEN WHEN the author remains within the realm of realism, he relies heavily on shoddy New Journalism techniques to add flavor to his descriptions. From every party and intimate conversation, every private meeting and public confrontation, come long, laborious, detailed quotes. Was Fromson wearing a Dick Tracy-style tape recorder-wristwatch--when, for instance, he challenged his boss on arms sales and got this (exact) reply?

It's for the President's top men to brief those business executives on present and future government policies affecting international business--to make them feel that they're getting the same briefings we give the President. It's bullshit, but just get on with it. You work for a politician, even if he is the President. Considering that he [Gerald Ford] is running for his political life this election, you should be thankful you're as insulated from domestic politics as you are.

There's a lot of interesting stuff in there about government-business relations, the role of presidential aides, and elective politics, but it could have been explained without making up a quote and sticking it in someone's mouth. If Fromson is willing to fabricate intricate conversations that couldn't possibly have been recorded, how do we know he hasn't made up whole characters and situations to lend his commentary texture?

Finally, for no good reason at all, Fromson tacks on a little adventure involving KGB spies and American counter-intelligence. Again, the episode may be grounded in truth, but the amateurish way in which the author presents it only distracts the reader from the more sober, believable sections of the book.

All Running and Fighting needed was a thorough editing by a publisher who had dealt with first-time authors before. Brett Fromson is onto something in Washington, and his subject merits the more serious analysis a longer work might have allowed. This one falters when he confuses imagination with observation.