Reform and Public Administration The machinery of government Reforming public administration Privatization and contracting out

The machinery of government All the structural arrangements adopted by national, state, or local governments to deliver their legally mandated programs and services The machinery is created to deliver services, so the quality of the machinery is judged by the quality of public administration

Because Public administration is responsible for implementing programs and deliver services to eligible citizens

This machine is Complex; because there are different levels, types, and branches of government with a diversity of agencies and programs in place Is big; because governmental entities, once established, tend to last a long time and do not change easily. They develop constituencies that support their cause. They also take new causes that enhance their support even more.

The Administrative Architecture of the U.S. Government The U.S. has a federal system of government There are three branches that balance and check on each other Checks and balances was the first reinvention of government (too much suspicion of big government) The purpose is to protect liberties

The Legislative Branch Congress Senate and House of Representatives 535 people responsible for lawmaking

The Executive Branch Executive office agencies (top presidential staff agencies to provide advise to the president) Executive departments (15 departments constitute president’s cabinet) Independent public bodies (regulatory commissions)

State and Local Government Machinery The Tenth Amendment says, “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people” There are over 80,000 governments in the United States.

Include: State governments County governments Municipal governments Special districts School districts

Council-Manager Form of Government An elected council responsible for policy formulation A manager is appointed by the council to carry out policy implementation The manager works at the pleasure of the council That is the structural equivalent of the politics-administration dichotomy

Reforming the national machinery of government Government needs reform, when people feel that it fails to meet the rising expectations of citizens

At the federal level, presidents established commissions to produce lengthy proposals to reform the government

Cont’d The Brownlow Commission First Hoover Commission Second Hoover Commission Grace Commission Ash Council National Performance Review

National Performance Review – Gore Report A six-month study aimed at making the federal government more efficient (1993) NPR made 258 agency-specific recommendations, including the abandonment of obsolete programs, elimination of unproductive subsidies, redesign of failed programs Implementation of NPR resulted in savings of $ 137 billion and reduction of 351,000 positions in government

Cont’d When Republicans got into power, the reinventing government movement lost its appeal and was replaced with a push for more devolution and privatization

Privatization The process of returning to the private sector property or function previously owned or performed by government Rests on the assumption that private sector works better than the public sector

Public sector is blamed for its inefficiency

Privatization is presented as a cure to ill-government

Cont’d Firefighters watch home burn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJyjNiL4zZg

Contracting out (a.k.a., outsourcing) Being used to separate the production of public sector goods and services from their provision Government keeps providing a particular service, but its production is done by a private agency (e.g., sanitation services are produced by a private company)

Privatization may not necessarily increase the performance of service delivery public accountability is weak, private contractors might be difficult to monitor and control might lead to corruption and poor performance