Re inventing the government
- 1. THE CONTINUOUS REINVENTING OF THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT Dr. Florencio N. Embalsado, Jr., DPA Ph.D Fellows of USEP-Davao Professor In-Charge
- 2. The Machinery of Government • The Machinery of Government refers to all of the structural arrangements that allow government to function at the federal, state, and local levels.
- 3. The Machinery of Government In time, after a process of internal evaluation, and, more often, after suggestions or demands from their external environment, all organizations come to realize that deficiencies and errors exist within their systems.
- 4. The Machinery • They may then undertake the process of reorganization or reinvention of government.
- 5. The Machinery • Government is in a constant state of fine- tuning its machinery. • Each time the government makes new public policy or amends an old one, government must put into place new machinery to implement it.
- 6. The Administrative Machinery of Government • The Constitution structures the political, economic, and social lives of the people, and so, appropriately, it begins with the opening phrase, “We the people.”
- 7. The Administrative Machinery • This puts the decision-making control into the hands of the citizens. • The Constitution assigns powers to various branches of government and establishes a system of checks and balances.
- 8. Executive Branch Machinery • The most complex machinery of public administration resides in the executive branch, which contains a variety of organizational categories:
- 9. Executive Branch Machinery a. The Executive Office of the President (EOP) is a collective term that includes the top presidential staff agencies, which provide advice to the president in a variety of administrative areas and on issues of significant national priority.
- 10. Executive Branch Machinery b. Executive Departments: The president’s cabinet is a collective phrase for a group of executive departments that advise the president.
- 11. Executive Branch Machinery c. Independent Public Bodies: There are two entities here: 1. there are government corporations, such as the Postal Service;
- 12. Executive Branch Machinery 2. there are regulatory commissions set up by Congress to regulate some aspect of the economy, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- 13. Executive Branch Machinery • The administrators of these bodies are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. • Some regulatory functions are also provided by traditional cabinet departments.
- 14. State and Local Government Machinery State and local governments parallel the national model. The amendment to the Constitution provides that powers not delegated to the government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people.
- 15. State and Local Government Machinery • The Constitution does not specifically mention local governments. • Hence, their powers are derived from state law.
- 16. State and Local Government Machinery • The Rule outlines criteria developed by state courts to determine the nature and extent of powers granted to local governments.
- 17. State and Local Government Machinery • State government: • The elected chief executive of the state is the governor, assisted by agencies and individuals similar to the federal model.
- 18. State and Local Government Machinery• Local government is a broad term that includes a hierarchy of levels: county government, municipal (or city) government, towns, and special districts.
- 19. Reinventing Government • The tax revolt movement forced the government to reduce or stabilize tax rates. • Then the revolution came along, with its slogan “government is the problem.”
- 20. Reinventing Government The deficiencies apparent in government were taken up again with the “reinventing government” movement and its reports, such as the National Performance Review, that spoke to the mushrooming national debt, the enormous waste in government, the diminishing of public trust, and a variety of ills.
- 21. Micromanagers—A Consequence of Government Reform • A variety of other executive branch reforms that tinkered with the machinery of government took place besides the ones mentioned above. • The combined effect of these laws was to unleash a mob of micromanagers in government.
- 22. Micromanagers—A Consequence of Government Reform • Nowhere is this more prevalent than in Congress, where members spend inordinate amounts of time micromanaging issues that make them look good to their constituents rather than focusing on public policymaking.
- 23. Group Exercise Think Piece “The Role of Government in the Twenty- first Century” Divide the class into two groups. Group 1 is the “Invisible Hand of Government” Group. This group will argue for a lesser role for government in the twenty-first century. Group 2, “Visible Hand of Government” will argue that government appropriately has a much broader role to play in the lives of its citizens in the twenty-first century.
- 24. Class Exercise You are a senior analyst in the firm of Quick and Devoe Associates, a management consulting firm in Cannonsville, California. Cannonsville is basically a university town with the large Cannonsville University as its core enterprise—an organization that has special expertise in veterinary medicine and in the management and biological sciences. Your assignment concerns the local Cannonsville City Zoo. This is a local government entity that has been having difficulty for several years. It has already been determined by a preliminary study that if the zoo management could be turned around, the facility could be made profitable because of its strategic location, which is close to several major metropolitan areas in southern California, its spectacular scenic vistas, and its unique population of tropical animals.
- 25. Class Exercise PROBLEMS -low revenues due to lack of visitor interest, development funding, and other funding options—retail sales, special programs, and exploration of government grant monies - high expenses in the areas of animal diets, horticulture, and grounds management - a seasonal employment workforce made up of part-timers who are difficult to manage - animal health problems - interference by political elites in government who use the zoo for political purposes and for patronage appointments
- 26. Class Exercise GOALS The zoo needs to be updated in terms of its three strategic goals: - Recreation - Conservation - Education You have been asked to look at several options for “reinventing” the zoo. Should it be privatized? Should it become a non-profit entity? Could it remain a public entity, with some functions outsourced to private vendors? The analysis is up to you. Based on the readings in Chapter 3, what would you suggest? Back up your recommendations with strong arguments. Provide a one or two page executive summary of your recommendations.