Grading the State: A Three State Comparative Analysis of 2008 Governmental Performance

Paul C. Light’s (2006) article, “The Tides of Reform Revisited: Patterns in Making Government Work, 1945-2002”, has revealed to the readers how the current landscape of administrative reorganization is and how the sphere is gradually being dominated by four major competing ideas, viz. scientific management, the war on waste, the watchful eye, and liberation management. Light (2006), has explained how at the very heart of the American reform policies lays the four tides of reform ingrained with four philosophies. Light (2006) has stated that “the Constitution contains harbingers of all four “tides,” or philosophies, of administrative reform that populate the federal statute books today. It spoke to the logical of scientific management by creating a single executive with tight day-to-day control over the officers and departments of government. It laid basis for future wars on waste by requiring an annual accounting of expenditures and revenue while reserving the appropriation power for Congress.” Light (2006) has also stated that, the Constitution also “emphasized the need for a watchful eye on government excess through an elegant system of checks and balances. And it invented future efforts to liberate government from excessive regulation by vesting all executive powers in the president.” It is noteworthy that, Light (2006) has tried to make the readers understand how in the recent decades, all the four tides have accelerated in pace and intensity and how such acceleration

The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively compare and contrast the implementation of two types of mayor-council government systems which are that of the weak-mayor type of the mayor council system and the strong-mayor type of the mayor council system. The premise of the analysis which has been conducted in this paper is based upon assessing the local governments of two cities within the United States – Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Minneapolis, Minnesota which follow the adoption of a strong-mayor system and weak-mayor system respectively.

Kernaghan, K. 2000. The Post-Bureaucratic Organization and Public Services Values. Interational Review of Administrative Sciences 66. 2000, pp. 92-93.

The increased of industrialization in American cities brought a new social demand to public officials who were unprepared to target the existing issues of society. Administrative officers started to gaining power to conduct intervention programs or institutions. However, people started to distrust public administrators and institutions for their inefficiency and incapacity they gave to the treatment of social issues. The author

In nowadays, people pay more and more attention to the government’s central position in the economy and the society. An effective government, regarding to the economy, the society and even the government development is absolutely necessary. The various countries experience indicated that, an effective government surely is a function limited government, behavior legally achievement government, authority multi- centers disposition government, decision-making highly democratic government, information highly transparent government and naturally also a government has an intelligent, capable and high morale employee team. All of these depend on an advanced modern

Performance funding is a method of financing public education institutions based on outcomes such as retention, course and degree completion, and job placement. However, how are states being held accountable for monies received? According to Burke, (2002); Dougherty & Hong, (2006); Layzell, (1999); Ruppert, (1995), the purpose of performance based funding is to encourage institutions to be more effective and efficient while demands on higher education are being increased. One of the mysteries of state performance funding is that more accountability has been associated with states receipt of monies. Although there has been great interest in it for over 30 years, only half of all states have ever created a performance funding program for higher

The management of an organization plays an integral part in determining the direction and performance of the organization. The manner in which the management of an organization is handled has a profound effect on the organization. The success of an organization is dependent upon a flexible and skilled management and workforce. The management of an organization is responsible for shaping up the organizational behavior and ultimately the culture within the organization. Public management faces a multiple of challenges and opportunities, how the management deals with these issues translates to efficiency in management. The personal judgments and skills of public managers can make a significant impact in public management. If

In nowadays, people pay more and more attention to the government’s central position in the economy and the society. An effective government, regarding to the economy, the society and even the government development is absolutely necessary. The various countries experience indicated that, an effective government surely is a function limited government, behavior legally achievement government, authority multi- centers disposition government, decision-making highly democratic government, information highly transparent government and naturally also a government has an intelligent, capable and high morale employee team. All of these depend on an advanced modern

(2012), Pew has developed a report in order to assess the quality of governmental management in the 50 states (Pew, 2012). The report entitled, “Grading the States,”is a cumulative assessment, which

The media coverage of the news is an informative way American citizens can stay well versed when it comes to what is happening in our country and the world. To gain this type of knowledge people can simply turn on the television to the local news station, pick up a newspaper, or become in tuned electronically through the Internet or cell phone applications. The options for gaining information of what is occurring in the world are at our fingertips. When it comes to news media coverage there seems to be more portrayal of national or local news rather than state government topics. The state government is not as prominent as the national or local level governments in the media because, of its middle role in the federal system, which often conceals the state’s responsibility when it comes to policy decisions (Gormley, 1978, p. 354). The lack of news popularity for state governments can be explained through the reasons why they are not gaining as much media coverage and how state’s issues can influence the lives of citizens.

In the following paragraphs, I will explain the dominant theory in public administration practice and elaborate on the major theoretical assumptions of the Old Public Administration. As stated in the question, the world has transformed through globalization, information technology, and devolution of authority since the latter part of the last century. The dominant theory in public administration has been replaced from the traditional rule-based, authority-driven processes of the Old Public Administration with market-based, competition-driven tactics in the New Public Management, beginning in the 1980s (Kettl, 2000, p. 3). This was an effort to privatize government and streamline public administration to maximize efficiency and productivity. Heavily relying on market mechanisms to guide public programs, public administrators in the New Public Management are encouraged to “steer, not row,” meaning they should not bear the burden of delivering services, but instead define programs that others will carry out, through contracting or other means (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2011, p. 13). Core values of the New Public Management include using private sector and business approaches to the public sector, squeezing as many services as possible from smaller revenues, market style incentives, providing customers more choices, and focusing on outputs and outcomes instead of mainly processes.

There are some weaknesses to these approaches. Begum (1980) notes that “policy evaluations efforts are subject to validity threats from political sources (as cited in Segall, 1976,). The impact of political realities on the policy evaluation effort can be attributed to a tendency described by Campbell wherein “specific reforms are advocated as though they were certain to be successful” (as cited in Segall, 1976, p.166). Begum (1980) explains the concerns the potential bias resulting from the fact that evaluators are often encouraged to demonstrate “surprising” findings and results (as cited in Mushkin, 1973, p.166). Begum (1980) explains that “much of the contrast and conflict among evaluation reports stem from a lack of consistency in how various evaluation personnel approached these level tasks (p. 167).

1.) Productivity is defined as the relationship between resources used and results achieved¹. Improvement in this area means either obtaining more and better program output from a given level of resources or using fewer resources to maintain or improve a certain level of output. The federal government has a vital stake in improving the productivity of state and local governments for two primary reasons: (1) the national economy is strengthened as a result of improvements in the productivity and fiscal prospects of this key sector; and (2) the effectiveness and efficiency of the multitude of federal grant and regulatory programs using state and local governments to implement federal policies are directly related to the management capacity

Most of us are member of a state and live within the borders of one. Statehood today refers not merely to a set of institution, but also to a body of attitudes, practices and codes of behavior that we follow consciously and willingly at times, and unconsciously and unwillingly at other times. These codes of behavior could encompass obedience of state laws, obligatory voting in elections, compulsory military training, or conscription. Some political thinkers maintain that the state is the most important concerns of modern political theory. Rights, democracy, equality, liberty, are based on the relationship between state and those living with it. State is consisted with rules and the regulations which we have to follow the rules otherwise punishment are also there if we do not follow the rules and regulation.