The Blurred Boundaries of Public Administration

Abstract

7I7o ever increasing degree, governments at all levels vesting responsibility for performance of important government activities in quasi-government or quasi-private organizations outside traditional government framework. This trend is reflected in proliferation of federal government-sponsored enterprises, nonprofit corporations, and contract research centers. The most recent manifestation is nonprofit intermediaries (Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, Youthwork, Public/Private Ventures) utilized by Department of Labor to manage key components of 1977 youth employment and demonstration program. Proponents of nonprofit intermediaries argue that their use reflects increasingly pluralistic character of this complex and fact that an either/or, public/private world, separating government and for profit enterprises, has long ceased to exist, if it ever really did.' The burgeoning use of these and other hybrid organizations undoubtedly responds to felt needs, but it also raises serious questions of appropriateness. The Labor Department launched above-mentioned nonprofit intermediaries as the only possible course, given tensions between Congress' expectations and Congress' provision of federal At same time, suspicion exists that nonprofits are likely to be vehicles for private entrepreneurs who pursuing, if not a partisan or private interest, at least a highly personal vision of public good.2 Granted appeal of feasibility, democratic governance should also be given its due. In new political economy, says Bruce Smith, the traditional distinction between public and private sectors has become nearly obliterated through flow of public funds to universities, industry, nonprofit institutions, voluntary hospitals, social welfare agencies, and other quasi-public entities.3 Wisely, however, he acknowledges requirements of a constitutional democracy: An open, thorough debate ... can begin to spell out main features of a modern administrative apparatus that can mobilize wide energies in society for public purposes, but still be 'steered' by accountable officials.4 * Using government-sponsored enterprises as example, this article calls attention to blurred boundaries of public administration and emphasizes desirability of establishing clear lines of accountability in a constitutional democracy. Government-sponsored enterprises, or their employees, frequently statutorily designated as private, even when entities dependent on government financing. Ambiguities in their status often flow from policy makers' focus on federal ceilings on expenditures and personnel. The alternative of employing government-sponsored enterprises and other extra-governmental institutions should not be excluded when their superiority to other institutions can be demonstrated, but decision should not be forced by inflexible regulations.