Government Performance

Taking the ambitious and unique approach of using empirical analysis to identify the key linkages between public management and effective policy performance, this book offers students a larger and more reliable set of empirical guideposts and prescriptions than have ever before been available. This is a bold project that goes beyond any earlier effort to define and measure the qualities of government that yield effective public policy, and there is much for all of us to learn here. -- G. Calvin Mackenzie, Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of Government, Colby College The book's theme is an important and timely one: that management matters and that management reform would be most fruitfully approached as a long-term building of competencies and components necessary to effect change. The qualitative and quantitative data have been used to craft one of the more comprehensive and integrated pictures of management available in the field. In undertaking such a project, and succeeding as they have, the authors have done an enormous service to the field. -- Barbara S. Romzek, Associate Dean, University of Kansas

While acknowledging the political context of all public administration systems, they argue that effective management of these systems nevertheless provides the key to good government performance.Scholars and practitioners of public management have stressed the importance of such varied concepts as efficiency, process, systems, and capacity as key to running effective government programs. While acknowledging the usefulness of each of these criteria, the authors of Government Performance argue that one quality above all is crucial to the overall performance of government: effective management. Examining government performance at the federal, state, and local levels, the authors present analyses of public management systems in all fifty states, the thirty-five largest cities, forty large counties, and a number of federal agencies. They examine systems for financial management, human resources management, information technology management, capital management, and systems for managing results. While acknowledging the political context of all public administration systems, they argue that effective management of these systems nevertheless provides the key to good government performance.