Improving Government Performance

An Owner's Manual

John J. DiIulio, Gerald Garvey, Donald F. Kettl

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Year: 2001
• eBook ISBN: 9780815723288
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The Clinton administration's National Performance Review of the federal government (also called the Reinventing Government Initiative) is the eleventh effort this century to improve the executive branch and reform the federal service. Most previous efforts have faltered. How can present and future recommendations avoid the same fate?
This book provides practical and timely guidance to those trying to improve government performance. The focus of successful attempts, the authors argue, should be sustained evolution, not bursts of invention aimed at sweeping transformation. Specific proposals address ways to change government over the long term, ways to streamline bureaucracy, attract more resourceful and innovative workers, and make agencies more responsive to their customers, the citizens.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Introduction: Two Metaphors of Reform—Invention and Evolution
• 1. Thinking beyond the Rhetoric of Reform
• 2. The Evolution of the Federal Bureaucracy
• 3. The Contemporary Critique of Bureaucracy
• 4. The Federal Government's Responsibilities
• 5. Rebuilding Government Capacity
• 6. Streamlining the Bureaucracy
• 7. Deregulating the Civil Service
• 8. Cultivating a Culture of Performance
• Conclusion: Two Deficit Problems—Budget and Performance
• Notes
• Index