Symposium: the national performance review and public administration

Abstract

The Symposium on the National Performance Review (NPR) and Public Administration, contained in this issue of the International Journal of Public Administration, offers some insights from prominent scholars in the field. They have presented their research and assessments of a subject with enduring importance: government reform. They have critically appraised the progress of the latest effort toward such change, but they are generally pessimistic about the prospects for improving the effectiveness and economy of the federal government. However, they have not sought to evaluate the work of the NPR as a matter of what they think ought to have been examined. Instead, they explore whether it is accomplishing what it set out to do. They do not contend, as did management luminary Peter F. Drucker recently, that this commission should have explored a far different topic—namely, possible normative purposes of government at federal, state, and local levels and potential relationships with non-government sectors (non...