REFORMS

OLD DOCTRINES

NEW DOCTRINES

Old DoctrineThe purposes of public sector organizations are the

hard-won results of sustained democratic debate.The are set out clearly in statute or executive order.These formal mandates legitimate public sector

organizations and also provide concrete operational guidance as to the means to be used in pursuit of public purposes.

Together, mandated purposes and ends provide a basis for accountability to the public via elected officials. We rely on compliance with statutory intent to avert waste, fraud and abuse.

Old Principles

• Budgets

• Civil service

• Athorization

New Doctrine

Make public sector organizations efficient reduce costs, and adapt to changing political demands or new substantive tasks.

CREATION OF PUBLIC VALUE

Reforms—within principles

• Old principles guide new reforms

• New reforms risk causing new problems

• New problems can violate old principles

1. Apolitical civil service

Principle: neutral competence

Civil servants

No political allegiance

Therefore: serve government of the day

Puzzle: Enhance power without threatening democracy

2. Decline of hierarchy

• Hierarchy once ruled

• New threats

• Networked approaches

• New alternatives– Market models– Participatory organizations– Social compliance instead of mandates

3. Permanence and stability

• Assumption: permanent bureaucracy

• Public service assumed to be lifetime employment

• Challenge: Greater flexibility to meet new problems

• Rise of contracting

4. Institutionalized civil service

• Governed as corporate body• Uniform policies apply to all• Merit as foundation• Challenges

– Need for temporary employment– Do temporary employees have right skills?– How to measure merit– Does it produce tension when other employment

isn’t as secure?

5. Responsiveness to political officials

• Beyond political neutrality

• Crucial to accountability

• Developing regimes

• Balancing predictability and accountability with entrepreneurship and flexibility

6. Equality

• Produce equality of outcomes

• Clients with similar needs should receive  similar benefits

Four models

• Market government [Note: like New Zealand reforms]

• Participative government• Team-based government• Flexible government

– “Virtual organizations”– Deregulated government– More managerial freedom

Common problems

• Coordination

• Errors: detecting and correcting

• Civil service

Nongovernmental Organizations

Importance of NGOs

No theory of governance can be complete without a theory

of NGOs• NGOs: mixed message/mixed motives

• Community-based organizations

• al Qaeda

Roles of NGOs

• Political– Articulate values– Give voice to values not normally captured

by governmental process– Especially in developing nations: give voice

to poor, unconnected

• Administrative– Serve as intermediaries for implementing

state policy

Connection between civil society and government

• NGOs as linkage• Legitimacy

– Challenge of pluralism: why listen to any particular NGO?

– Which voices are not heard?– What role should outside forces play in

encouraging development of NGOs?– What risks do they take in encouraging the

creation of some forces, not others?

Impact

• Assess: what is the influence of NGOs on politics

• Domestic

• International

Administrative issues

• Capacity– Administrative ability of NGOs to carry out

policy– Fisher: build capacity of citizens to act on

own behalf– But how much work needed to build

capacity?

Dilemma

• Building capacity v. fostering autonomy– NGOs as agents of government policy– Governments increasingly relying on NGOs

for service delivery– Risk: conflict between governmental policy

and NGO’s mission, autonomy

Public interest and NGOs

• Can government use NGOs and still pursue the broader interest?

• Risk: fragmentation, disenfranchisement

• Must governments rely on NGOs to ensure broad base for its actions?

• Broad participation, legitimacy

International Organizations

Big issues

• Governance

• Sovereignty

• Capture

• Equity

Governance of multinational organizations

• Who governs—and how?• Who has power in formal structures?• Formal voice, through treaty• Formal policy, through procedures• Who has bargaining power in actions? Are

some countries disadvantaged in process?• Imbalance of resources: political, economic

Bilateralism: alternative  to multilateral governance

• Problems– Too slow– Multiplies boundaries to be spanned– Can’t frame multi-nation strategies– Doesn’t produce sustainable strategies

Interest group politics

• Interest group politics affects all gov’ts• Corporations globalized more quickly, more

broadly than governments• Corporations have a strong interest in friction-

free transactions• Corporate interests don’t represent all

interests—or, necessarily, the public interestISSUE: balancing corporate power with other

interests

Equity

• Do multinational organizations promote policies that destroy jobs, worsen poverty—to the advantage of large corporations?

Equity politics

• Worry: Power of multinational corporations strengthened through globalization

• Power strengthened at expense of the poor• What strategies can be used to help the poor

in a global world?• World Bank: Comprehensive Development

Framework (?)

Strategy for multinational orgs

• What should be done?

• Who is in charge of what?