The "Reinventing Government" Exercise: Misinterpreting the Problem, Misjudging the Consequences

Abstract

A mid high expectations and considerable 4 fanfare, Vice President Al Gore presented the report of his National Performance Review (NPR) President Bill Clinton and the public on September 7, 1993.(1) The high expectations were set by the Vice President himself when in the April kick-off he announced a hastily assembled NPR staff that long-term goal is change the very culture of the federal After his talk, the Vice President turned the meeting over a motivational consultant, John Daly, who told the assembly that optimism and effective communication were the keys the success of NPR. It doesn't matter how good you really are, but how you communicate how good you are.(2) As a reporter present noted: [Daly] ended his remarks by discussing customer strategies used by the Disney company and led the group in a refrain from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.' And off work they went.(3) Also distributed at this event were wallet-sized laminated cards that provided the philosophical goals of this exercise in Reinventing the Federal Government. The cards contained the following principles: We will invent a that puts people first, by * serving its customers * empowering its employees * fostering excellence Here's How. We will -- * create a dear sense of mission. * delegate authority and responsibility. * replace regulations with incentives. * develop budget based outcomes. * measure our success by customer satisfaction. Six months later, the National Performance Review managed out of the Vice President's Office with additional temporary quarters for nearly 200 consultants and detailed federal employees located nearby, issued its 168 page report.(4) Upon reading the report, President Clinton pronounced that the government is broken,(5) a judgment repeated in the report (p. 6). The report, titled: From Red Tape Results: Creating a Government That Works Better and Costs Less, contains over 800 recommendations. Some proposals are extraordinarily expansive in their scope and implications (e.g., biennial budgets with expedited reprogramming authority assigned the Office of Management and Budget). Others are distinguished by their limited scope and detail (e.g., the Department of State will reduce by 11 the number of Marine Guard detachments it employs). The Vice President claims that the report's overarching objective is to make work better and cost less and that if Congress passes all its recommendations without major changes (or preferably, without any minor changes as well), the federal will save $108 billion over five years and be well on its way becoming an entrepreneurial serving contented customers. Two principal questions are addressed in this analysis of the Gore Report: (1) Where does the Gore Report fit in the history of reorganization efforts for the executive branch of government? More especially, does this report constitute a clear-cut break with traditional public administration values and point the way toward the reign of a new paradigm in the management of the executive branch of government? (2) What consequences are likely follow if the philosophy of the Gore Report and its specific recommendations are implemented? The mere recitation of highlights of a comprehensive report, such as the Gore Report, can be misleading. All reports on governmental organization and management have their basis in some theory about the nature of and about the management of that government. Occasionally this theory, with its underlying assumptions, is articulated by the report writers. More often than not, however, there is little theoretical discussion with the theory being simply assumed within the recommendations. …