Showing papers in "Public Administration Quarterly in 2009"

Municipal Performance Measurement and Management in Practice: Which Factors Matter?

Abstract: Performance management systems (PMSs) are being increasingly implemented in public sector organizations, although it is usually argued that a gap exists between the intended and the actual results. The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors that affect the use and implementation of PMSs in municipalities and how these drivers could influence their effectiveness. A multiple case study approach is used with extensive document analysis and direct interviews in four municipalities (two in Spain and two in Italy) that have implemented effective PMSs. Findings provide evidence of the factors that play a role in the implementation of these systems. In particular, time related concepts-duration, paths, windows of opportunity, cycles, causal mechanisms, and multiple perspectives-help to understand the time related factors which have a positive impact on final configuration of PMS.

When the Even the “Dollar Value Meal” Costs Too Much: Food Insecurity and Long Term Dependence on Food Pantry Assistance

Abstract: INTRODUCTION Each year, poverty affects millions of Americans in many different and sometimes unseen ways. Hunger is one of the clearest indicators of poverty (Jensen, 2002), but this indicator often goes unnoticed and, consequently, unaddressed by poverty programs at the federal, state, and local level. Like other manifestations of poverty, society deals with hunger through both government and charity-based programs. And, again, like other anti-poverty programs, these food assistance programs have been based on the idea that people would 'fall' onto hard times, and could "lift themselves" out of it. Food assistance programs were designed to be short-term solutions for crisis situations (Daponte and Bade, 2006). In reality food assistance programs are increasingly a long-term answer for the hungry. More than two-thirds of people receiving assistance from food pantries get help on a regular basis, and the use of private food assistance has risen dramatically since 1980, even before the most recent economic recession (Berner and O'Brien, 2004; Berner, Ozer, and Paynter, 2008). Who are the people who receive long term food assistance? Why don't federal programs such as food stamps fill this need? What moves a person from short-term need to long-term dependence? Using time-series data gathered from practitioner partners in North Carolina to answer these questions. This study contributes to a better understanding of food assistance need and thus can be used by policymakers to inform debate on federal and state programs, to strengthen relationships between government and the nonprofit community, and by food banks to better understand their clients. . BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW Though the great majority of undernourished people live in the world's poorest countries, there are a sizeable number of individuals inside the United States lacking stable, assured and adequate access to food (Jensen, 2002). USDA food assistance programs usually serve as an economic safety net for these individuals, buffering the effects of poverty. There is growing evidence suggesting food stamp recipients are not finding government assistance sufficient to meet the needs of their households, and as a result, are turning to emergency food providers in the private, non-profit sector for help (Eisinger 1999; Daponte 2000). Pantry directors provide anecdotal evidence suggesting people who cannot qualify for food stamp benefits are seeking food pantry aid with increasing frequency implying that the food-based social safety net in the United States is inadequate. One measure of welfare reform's success had been the decline in food stamp recipients in the late 1990s. Aggregate food bank and food stamps program usage patterns are well documented. In one study, Berner and O'Brien (2004) found a statistically significant relationship between welfare reform and increased demand on food banks. However, it was not known whether hungry individuals were simply turning to, or relying more heavily on, other sources. The Berner and O'Brien study examined the combined monthly food outflow patterns of 193 emergency food providers (EFPs) in central North Carolina from 1995-2000 along-side food stamp participation figures. The authors showed that while the number of food stamp recipients declined, the amount of food going out through EFPs rose. Results indicated that since welfare reform, these EFPs withdrew around 50 more tons of food for their clients than they otherwise would have over the time period. These aggregate results raised the question of whether one result of welfare reform was a temporary shift of direct service provision from government to non-profits. Since 2000, food stamp participation has risen again, but EFP usage also has continued to rise dramatically and is at record levels. According to Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest), 25 million Americans turned to charities for food assistance in 2004 (America's Second Harvest 2006). …

Implementing organizational reform strategies in state governments

Abstract: This paper examines the implementation of organizational reform strategies in state governments. It uses national survey data to examine the implementation of twelve reforms strategies that cover three areas: workforce reduction, work redesign, and system change. The paper further tests the relationship between reform strategies, individual characteristics, and management factors. The management factors are based on objective state grading data in five areas: financial management, capital management, human resources management, information technology, and managing for results. The empirical findings show that while public managers tend to be conservative and cautious in the implementation of reform strategies, they are also likely to adopt a complete package of related reform strategies in their implementation plans, rather than a single effort. The findings also support the relationship between organizational reforms, the length of a public manager‟s tenure in government service, and the state‟s performance on capital management and information technology issues. Implications of the findings are presented in order to enhance future public management reform studies.

Evaluating Increased Enrollment Levels in Institutions of Higher Education: A Look at Merit-Based Scholarship Programs

Abstract: INTRODUCTION The immense popularity of state lotteries as funding mechanisms for education policy and the notable success of merit based scholarship programs such as Georgia's Help Outstanding Pupils Educationally and Florida's Bright Futures Scholarship have generated unprecedented opportunities for qualifying students to enter institutions of higher education. In other states, allocations from the Tobacco Settlement Trust Fund and appropriations from state legislatures have increased the number of scholarships available to students who are not able to attend college otherwise. Previous research has evaluated such issues as program cost, number of students served, and cost per student. (Mikesell and Zorn, 1986; Spindler, 1995; Garrett, 2001; and Campbell, 2003, Duffourc, 2006). Other analyses have assessed selection criteria, retention standards, and student qualifications (Dee and Jackson, 1999; Binder, Ganderton, and Hutchens, 2001; Cornwell, Mustard and Sridhar; 2003; Selingo, 2003; Selingo, 2004; Stranahan and Borg, 2004; Fink, et.al. 2004; Mason, et. al. 2005; Dee, 2004; Kearney, 2005; Duffourc, 2006). No research has been found which addresses the potential impact of merit based scholarship programs on enrollment levels, and subsequently, infrastructure, faculty, and staff. Questions arise as to whether political leaders and public education administrators have adequately planned for the present and future needs of postsecondary education in addressing these issues. The purpose of this research is to determine if merit based scholarships have had a significant impact on enrollment levels, per student spending, and professor salaries at institutions of higher education. LITERATURE REVIEW State Lotteries and Education Lotteries have proven to be appealing mechanisms for producing supplemental government revenue because they are considered a voluntary tax: individuals pay the tax because they want to, instead of having to pay the tax because the government demands it (Mikesell, 2001). The noncompulsory aspects of lotteries are extremely appealing to governors and legislators because resources for social intervention programs can be generated without unpopular tax increases. In other words, the intent of legalized gambling has often been to raise revenues without increasing the tax burdens of the lower class (Mikesell, 1989). The most popular gambling device today is by far the lottery (Mikesell and Zorn, 1986). The allure of lotteries and other forms of gambling as a source of revenue enhancement for state and local governments ascribes amply to the continued emergence of legalized gambling over the past two decades. Currently, thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia operate lotteries, while all but two of the fifty states allow some form of legalized gambling (French, Moon, and Stanley, 2004). From 1982 to 1990, expenditures on legalized gaming increased at almost two times the rate of income (Gross, 1998). In 2000, gross revenues from state sanctioned gambling operations averaged approximately $34 billion a year (Calvert and McCormick, 2000). While lotteries are touted by many as a means of increasing funds for needy state programs, opponents contend that lotteries are not the economic savior that policy makers and voters originally thought (Jones and Amalfitano, 1995). Miller and Pierce (1997) examined the financial aspects of the education lottery's short-term and long-term effects. They found that state sponsored lotteries increased spending on education per capita during the early years of the lottery, but as time passed, these same states witnessed an overall decrease in spending for education. Another major problem found in the relationship between lotteries and education funding involves the fungibility of lottery revenues (Mikesell and Zorn, 1986; Spindler, 1995; Garrett, 2001; and Campbell, 2003). Many residents will realize the benefits of using profits from lottery sales as supplements to state funded programs such as education, healthcare and public safety programs (Campbell, 2003). …

No "One Best Way" to Manage Change: Developing and Describing Distinct Administrative Reform Dimensions across the Fifty American States

Abstract: INTRODUCTION Administrative Reform (AR) is in some respects like the 57 ingredients in Heinz ketchup or the 31 flavors of Baskin Robbin's ice cream. It may be imported, marketed, sold, and consumed by a diverse array of jurisdictional and/or organizational "customers." Thus the character and content of the commodity as well as the complexion of the consumers produces a complex collage on the intellectual and practical landscapes of public management. Kettl (2005) sketched the global "market" for reform and offered two dominant patterns, the Westminster (found in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and most comprehensively in New Zealand's "managerial" approach) and American ("reinvention" in three phases during the 1990's). The scope and significance of AR is demonstrated by his claim (2005, 60) that, "Perhaps never before have so many governments tried to change so much so fast in such similar ways." The continued currency of AR is exemplified by Light's updating of his "tides" of reform (Light 1997, 2006). Moynihan (2006) recently assessed the use of "Managing for Results" (MFR) among the American states in the late 1990's as a component of the "New Public Management" (NPM). He found significant discrepancies in the states between an emphasis on performance (results) and enhanced managerial authority, especially less of the latter. Previous work across state agencies explored contrasting "top-down" and "bottom-up" approaches to administrative reform (Burke and Wright 2002), as well as the measurement and explanation of reform implementation (Brudney, Hebert, and Wright 1999). In this article, a different line of inquiry is pursued, one that compares and contrasts performance/results-oriented reform techniques with structural/process reforms. Using a distinctive statistical approach--Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) --these two contrasting dimensions of reform are first hypothesized and then emerge from the analysis. We define, describe, and measure these dimensions for each of the fifty states. They are approximate parallels to Moynihan's MFR on the one hand and increased management discretion and systems analysis on the other. This approach yields new insights into the depth and character of Administrative Reform across the American states in the 1990s. In general, we find that many states adopted both performance/results-oriented reforms and structure/process reforms simultaneously, leading to "triumphs" of reform effort. In a few states the two dimensions represented alternatives or tradeoffs, with some opting for one over the other. Across all states the analysis reveals that performance/results reforms outpaced structural/process strategies with respect to adoption, a finding consistent with Moynihan's analysis. Regardless of the tradeoffs or triumphs, a major finding is the absence of a single or "one best way" to reform state administration in the 1990's. The dual dimensional character of our results runs counter to Peters' (2005, 356) "incompatibility" hypothesis where "picking one reform may preclude implementing others effectively." The article concludes with observations about the impact and implications of the separate reform dimensions. REFORM, REINVENTION, AND THE AMERICAN STATES The public management field faces a quandary in grappling with the cluster of issues associated with contemporary AR. The issues involve, among others, the identification, classification, measurement, explanation, and prescription (or advocacy) of various and specific administrative reforms. Since the 1980's and 1990's, many national and subnational governments now function with updated techniques, approaches, and cultural underpinnings. Difficulties remain, however, in estimating the character, content, extent, and results of the so-called reform revolution (Kettl 2005). The assessment and categorization of New Public Management (NPM) reforms is fraught with methodological challenges (Poister and Streib 1999; Calista 2002; Thompson 2002). …

Implementing large-scale organization development and change in the states

Abstract: This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the 59th Academy of Management Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 15, 2007. The Problem During the past few decades, state governments have turned to organization development (OD) practices in the hope of changing public governance. Most of these programs were developed during the "reinvention of government" era, and most were able to achieve incremental change (Lindbloom, 1959) or ripple effects (Light, 1997). Therefore, empirical evidence of large-scale OD implementations and the details that are associated with implementation success are lacking. Moreover, due to the fact that large-scale OD interventions are a relatively new phenomenon in general, there is also a lack of large-scale change findings in the broader fields of organization development and public administration. A few analyses of "reform" have been conducted at an "across-the-states" level (Brudney, Herbert and Wright, 1999; Council of State Governments 1997; Kravchuck and Leighton 1993; Walters 1995), and report card analyses have been generated that compare, in a very broad sense, the fifty states in regard to large-scale reforms (Barrett and Greene, 2001). In addition, one brief report showcased administrative reforms in the state of Arkansas (Vanagunas 1999). In short, the current literature offers information on who is implementing large-scale change, and what types of change they are implementing. However, very little is known about the "details" of implementation, and very few specific recommendations exist for administrators and OD change agents regarding how they should implement large-scale change interventions in the states. The present study is an attempt to begin to fill this literature gap, by evaluating the details of the large scale change program that Tom Ridge initiated in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Over a five year period, I was engaged with the change program as an external consultant and participant observer. In addition, I gathered evidence of important issues to the large scale change event through extensive interviews with a variety of stakeholders who were intimately involved in the change agenda. The findings provide empirical support for a number of issues that state administrators and OD consultants may need to consider when implementing change programs in the states. The Context of Large Scale Change The most recent OD wave hit the states beginning in the 1990s (National Commission of the State and Local Service 1993), and the most obvious large-scale OD programs in state government were Total Quality Management (TQM) and process reengineering techniques (Kravchuck and Leighton 1993; Milakovich 1991; Swiss 1992). These techniques, along with a host of other private business "best practices," and publications like Osborne and Gaebler's Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector (1992) facilitated the "Government Reinvention" movement. Later in the decade, the "New Public Management" movement promoted the idea of privatization of public services with the assumption that market competition leads to cost effective and quality oriented service delivery (Lynn 1998; Terry 1998). By the 1980s it seemed that Pennsylvania had joined the "bandwagon," so to speak, regarding the use of OD methods and techniques. In the midst of Governor Richard Thornburgh (R) (1979-1987)) and the Robert Casey (D) (1988-1995) administrations, TQM was implemented in several state departments, and in some it took hold (Richard Harris, personal communication, March 15, 2002). In others it did not. TQM interventions were typically conceived within a department, and sometimes shared with other agencies, but it was never a priority of the governor or upper-level executive staff. Where it did take hold, it was promoted by the top executive leader of an agency or bureau, and implemented at multiple levels or in pockets of an organization. …

Of Devils and Details: Bargaining for Successful Public/private Partnerships between Cities and Sports Teams

Abstract: INTRODUCTION In November 2005, the National Basketball Association (NBA) Bobcats began play in a new downtown Charlotte arena Earlier in 2005 Newark and team officials broke ground for an arena for the National Hockey League's (NHL) New Jersey Devils and Indianapolis initiated work for a stadium for the National Football League's (NFL) Colts Arlington, Texas' voters passed a tax increase to pay a substantial portion of the costs of a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys Even New York City, with its economic vitality and well-defined image, has been pursuing public-private partnerships for new facilities for a basketball team in Brooklyn (Nets) and ballparks in the Bronx (Yankees) and Queens (Mets) New York will likely invest more than $1 billion in the three facilities With seven new facilities scheduled to open between 2006 and 2010, and with 10 other communities currently in negotiations with teams for new facilities, the interest in hosting professional sports teams remains part of the public agendas in world cities and dominant cities in large metropolitan areas (Turner and Rosentraub 2002) Negotiating with teams for the building, use, and maintenance of sports facilities is not an annual activity for cities, but represents a relatively rare event that requires specialized knowledge As a result, most communities engage outside consultants to work with their staff and leaders Although this strategy is often helpful, it does not relieve community leaders of the burden of establishing the city's goals for the negotiations and the level of investments appropriate for the anticipated goals In terms of specialized knowledge, city leaders need to understand the constraints facing the team and the commitment an owner is willing to make to assist in achieving the city's goals These elements are particularly complex because professional sports leagues in the United States receive special protection from market forces through court decisions and legislative actions Hosting teams requires a level of a public investment that has ranged from the public sector supplying only the needed infrastructure (roads and sewers) to the investments made by some cities to support the full cost of a facility and its maintenance With the scale of these investments often in the hundreds of millions of dollars, community leaders must understand the range of public benefits possible and the available strategies to insure that committed tax dollars have the potential to achieve the desired goals This paper addresses the strategies available to public officials against a background of why cities pursue sports team for their communities and the unique dimensions of the sports business that make these negotiations for cities unlike most others That discussion precedes the presentation of a model for developing public-private partnerships that can help cities secure their goals WHY DO CITIES PAY FOR SPORTS? Critics of public investments to attract or retain professional sports teams often ask why local governments care about the presence of professional sports in their communities? Frameworks for deciding what governments should or should not provide underpin the field of public administration, and at first blush would suggest that professional sports is not a public good Buchanan (1968), Musgrave and Musgrave (1989), Ostrom, Bish, and Ostrom, (1989), and Savas (1999), have provided the theoretical background that has educated generations of public administrators with regard to the scope of joint consumption goods and services the public sector should provide Goods and services characterized as involving individual consumption and for which it is possible to exclude non-payers are those best left to market transactions Those goods that fall between joint consumption and private goods and that are deemed worthy of government action to insure their existence in a community are called merit goods and are provided and produced by numerous local governments (Musgrave and Musgrave 1989) …

The New Architecture of State Government Administration: Key Questions and Preliminary Answers

Abstract: INTRODUCTION How are we to understand the changing architecture of state government administrative reform? To do so, the article poses the following basic questions about what has changed, why it changed, the implications for management, and what the future will look like. * What are the patterns of administrative reform among state governments? ** What explains the adoption of administrative reforms? * What are the implications of the constrained model of administrative reform? ** Can managers make use of the new model? ** What factors foster the use of performance management reforms? ** What are the potential negative impacts of the constrained model? * What is the future of administrative reform? ** Will the market model will lead to more gaming and opportunistic behavior? ** Will the market model crowd out intrinsic incentives? ** Will the market model foster partisan goals over management values? ** Will the market model lead to better motivation and higher performance? ** How might state governments reconsider authority? I draw on my own research and that of others to offer preliminary answers to the above questions. Where these answers fall short and are speculative, there is a pressing need for additional research. A primary goal of this article, therefore, is to consider the research agenda for state government scholars interested in administrative reform. This article proposes that the pattern of administrative change in state government reflects a constrained model of reform. Aspects of New Public Management (NPM) doctrine that emphasized building performance information systems were adopted by state governments, while doctrinal recommendations for increasing managerial authority were largely overlooked. Performance information systems offered an attractive reform for elected officials who valued the symbolic benefits of reforming government, but who were reluctant to engage in a more contested fight to dismantle the traditional civil service. This left state managers with a constrained model of management, with new expectations in terms of performance but little additional authority to fulfill those expectations. Managers can make use of the constrained model, if they have sufficient resources and can find a way to tie performance information systems to their broader policy and management agenda. It is possible that the constrained model of reform will remain in place for some time, but there are indications that state governments have found ways to weaken traditional employee protections without directly overturning civil service legislation. This suggests the displacement of the constrained model with a market model of administration. The market model is expected to lead to better performance and increased motivation, although some evidence suggests that it will not always do so. The market model also brings dangers, including gaming of performance measures, greater politicization of the public service, and the crowding out of intrinsic motivation. Some of these dangers might be averted if governments grant managerial authority to career employees when there is a demonstrable benefit, rather than granting large swathes of discretion to political appointees without a clear sense of how this authority will be used. The article concludes by considering some of the methodological challenges facing scholars of administrative reform. What are the Patterns of Administrative Reform among State Governments? Arguments about administrative reform have been characterized as a series of doctrinal claims (Hood and Jackson, 1991). Doctrines are a theoretical explanation of cause and effect, often presented as factual and widely applicable, and designed to prompt actions consistent with their preferred explanation. In recent decades, public management doctrines have argued that traditional bureaucratic structures were essentially broken, and should be replaced. …

Who's Minding Which Store? Institutional and Other Actors' Influence on Administrative Rulemaking in State Agencies, 1978-2004

Abstract: INTRODUCTION Perhaps no administrative function comes with more discretion, as well as controversy, than rulemaking. Concomitant issues of bureaucratic accountability and responsiveness abound. These features lead to the question: Who is minding the store when it comes to oversight of administrative rulemaking? Most state administrative agencies can be compared to a "store" whose shelves contain a large inventory of actual (or potential) rules each agency is empowered to release through its front "door." The agency, of course, can open the door and release those rules and regulations. But the agency door is subject to a wide variety of influences from various actors attempting to control the door mechanism. Whether the rulemaking door remains closed, barely ajar, or swings wide open is the result of multiple actors putting pressure(s) on the respective agencies' doors. This paper assesses and contrasts over time the influence of institutional (governor, state legislators, state courts) and non-institutional (clientele groups, professional associations) actors on state agency decisions involving administrative rules and regulations. Studies of the policy actors active in this administrative function have mostly been at the national level (Furlong, 1998; Furlong and Kerwin, 2002) and most often in the form of case studies (Bryner, 1987; Golden, 1998; West, 2004). Gubernatorial and legislative oversight of administrative rule and decision-making has received far less empirical attention than the influence these actors have over other agency activities and functions (Furlong, 1998). Much of the literature on state level administrative rulemaking has focused on the legislature as a control agent (Baranowski, 2001; Grady and Simon, 2002; Miller, 1987). The role of the governor in this domain has been less systematically explored (Woods, 2004). This leaves many questions unanswered. For example, how important is the governor in administrative rulemaking? How does her or his influence compare with that of state legislators and other actors? Is the governor, the state legislature, neither, or both consistent and/or dominant in agency rulemaking decisions? We compare the influence of these two institutional actors over time. We also explore other actors' access to the "store" and how closed or open is the door of the store. In that regard we assess the role of clientele groups--often considered the most powerful non-institutional actor in this policy realm. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE What is the structure of bureaucratic decisionmaking in administrative rulemaking? What are the implications of agency rulemaking for democratic theory and accountability? Of the three institutional actors with administrative oversight responsibilities, the governor and state legislators are omnipresent and exercise influence in a more regularized and direct manner than state courts. However, the tension between governors and state legislators in assuring accountability has led to increased reliance on state courts for resolving their skirmishes (Gormley, 1996). The challenges to legislative vetoes of administrative rules landed in state courts in the 1970s and 1980s (Levinson, 1987) and are one example of this struggle. Empirical literature on principal-agent explanations of bureaucratic control (Baranowski, 2001; Cook and Wood, 1989; Wood and Waterman, 1994) gives a central role to hierarchy in overhead control and agency interactions. Nevertheless, influence over and public access to state administrative rulemaking may be as essential to the "preservation of our democratic system" as agency responsiveness is to institutional controls (Furlong and Kerwin, 2004:354). These and related issues emphasize the importance of assessing patterns of influence on rulemaking in state agencies. Governors and state legislatures have a range of informal means and formal tools to exercise influence on agency rulemaking. …

Income Inequality and Industrial Composition

Abstract: INTRODUCTION (1) When thinking about social class and inequality, the theme for this symposium publication, it is important to consider not only the magnitudes and changes in inequality but the determinants of such phenomena as well. The focus of this paper is specifically on income inequality in the United States. This issue will first be briefly examined from a national, state and international perspective. Following this brief review, a basic model of analysis is presented including a description of the data used in the analysis. The author utilizes a type of regression analysis that takes advantage of variations that are present at the sub-national level (states) in the dependent and independent variables. The paper then proceeds to a presentation of the results from estimations applying the regression model to two sets of independent variables. Finally the paper concludes with some possible generalizations and their public policy implications. INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES It is clear that there is a growing disparity in the distribution of incomes over time in the United States. In a report published by the US Census Bureau (Jones and Weinburg, 2000), the authors note that from 1968 to 1998 income inequality has increased substantially. The measure of income inequality that they and many others use is the Gini coefficient (2) which is an index of income concentration. A value of 0 indicates perfect equality and a value of 1 indicates perfect inequality. Even though there have been some periods in which the Gini coefficient decreased, the fifty year period from 1947 to 1998 has seen a net increase in the Gini coefficient or income inequality in the United States. Figure 1 displays the Gini ratio for three selected years which correspond to the years utilized for subsequent analysis in this paper. As can be seen, the level of income inequality has increased for every time period noted in Figure 1. The percentage change from 1979 to 1989 was 7.2% and the percentage change from 1989 to 1999 was 4.0%. Further the percentage change over the twenty year period was 11.6%. The causes as noted by Jones and Weinburg (2000) for changes in income inequality are generally associated with labor market changes and changes in household composition. More specifically Jones and Weinburg (2000) observe that a shift from manufacturing employment to high paying technical services jobs and lower paying retail trade jobs appears to be related to the increase in income inequality. Further Jones and Weinburg (2000) state that, "But within-industry shifts in labor demand away from less-educated workers are, perhaps, a more important explanation of eroding wages than a shift out of manufacturing" (pg. 10). Finally Jones and Weinburg (2000) note that changes in household composition such as increased divorce rates, out of wedlock births, and increasing age of first marriage may also contribute to the increase in income inequality. While it is clear that income inequality has increased in the United States as a nation over the last thirty years, the question remains as to how the variation within states in the United States? This is the issue that is reviewed next. INCOME INEQUALITY WITHIN THE UNITED STATES In a paper by Lynch (2003), the researcher examines income inequality for the United States and the individual states for the years 1988, 1995, and 1999. Lynch uses a data set he created using statistical matching techniques. The results on the national trend are consistent with the previously cited work and will not be reviewed here. In analyzing the trends in income inequality amongst the states, Lynch (2003) finds that the overall trends were generally similar to the nation. The magnitude of the changes however may vary substantially by region and state, though in some cases the trend is even opposite of the nation's. Thus the states reveal substantial variation that will be utilized when estimating the regression model later in this paper. …

"Killing the King" in Public Administration: From Critical Epistemology to Fractured Ontology and Limited Agency. A Review Essay

Abstract: INTRODUCTION For Farmer (2005), "imagination", especially in the form of "open engagement", is the fundamental requirement for a critical reflexivity that allows each of us to become an "artist in the conduct of our life" (Farmer, 2005, p. xiv). Farmer illuminates a "moral reflection" by which materialist political economy is conjoined with post-structuralist (even post-modernist) linguistic/symbolic analysis in order to recover the arena of norms/values from the deadening embrace of technocratic praxis. Farmer (2005) presents an imaginative, critical Public Administration indicative of what Dahrendorf (1968, p. vii) refers to as "a social science of values." This involves the type of "big range", "morally-committed" theorizing that "weave[s] historical awareness into sociological [or public administration] generalizations" (Dahrendorf, 1968, p. vii). Farmer beckons academics and practitioners into an imaginative, critical public administration, akin to Habermas's expansive "critical sociology," which "keep[s] us aware of what we are doing [...] irrespective of whether we are doing it consciously or blindly and without reflection. A critical sociology in this sense should view its subject precisely from an imagined [...] a priori perspective, as a generalized subject of social action" (Habermas, 1963, p. 228, cited in Dahrendorf, 1968, p. vii). How public administrators and ideologically-reconstructed "New Public Managers" interrogate the social world and build their assumptive domains depends on epistemological predispositions (relating to propositions about what is knowable) and ontological predispositions (relating to propositions about the phenomena to which causal capacity may be ascribed) (Dixon, Dogan & Kouzmin, 2004, p. 29). The intellectual chimera pitting "structuralism" against "agency" conjures an ontological no(wo)man's land. Without some capacity, and scope, for critical thinking, the managerialist myopia/dystopia is not only blind, but dangerously so. The classic debate about critical thinking has been over whether it is a universal, generic skill or a discipline-specific one. Recent discussion embraces Barnett's (1997, p. 7) view that critical thinking should be replaced with the wider concept of "critical being". Barnett (1997, p. 7) presents criticality in two dimensions, ranging on one hand from skills to transformational critique; criticality also ranges across the domains of knowledge, self and the world. Barnett's (1997, p. 1) ideal of the "critical being" is the lone Chinese student protester taking on an array of military tanks in Tiananmen Square in 1989. This ideal of the "philosopher-manager" (Chia & Morgan, 1996) is certainly beyond most professional/academic public administrationists. Mingers (2000) argues that a "critical approach should be interdisciplinary, academically rigorous and participative" (Sankaran & Kouzmin, 2005, p. 85). Drawing on Habermas's (1979; 1984; 1992; 1993) work on communicative action, discourse ethics and the validity claims of speech acts, "Mingers (2000, pp. 225-226) describes this approach as being comprised of the critique of rhetoric, the critique of tradition, the critique of authority and the critique of objectivity" (Sankaran & Kouzmin, 2005, p. 85). However, "Gold, Holman and Thorpe (2001) found that managers fail even at the lowest level of critical thinking [...] managers [finding] it difficult to fully identify their arguments [.] not adept at providing evidence, or warrants, for the claims that were being made [...] and their superficial understanding of argument tended to limit any critique of their practice, values and motives" (Sankaran & Kouzmin, 2005, p. 86). As for higher levels of critique, managers account for their activities by resorting to a scientific/ technical discourse emphasizing "rationality" and "objectivity" rarely relating their experiences to the wider social/cultural context whilst, at the same time, suppressing otherwise lumpy emotional content (Sankaran & Kouzmin, 2005, p. …

Quasi-Governmental Institutions as a Form of Local Boundary Change: Explanations for the Proliferation of Economic Development Corporations in Texas

Abstract: INTRODUCTION A central goal of general-purpose governments in the United States is to establish an environment that encourages new investments by the business community. This goal has led to the creation and proliferation of a variety of quasi-governmental institutions over the last three decades (Sagalyn 2007). Today, the number of business improvement districts throughout the nation is estimated at over 1,000 (Morcol and Zimmerman 2006), every state has legislation promoting some form of tax increment financing (Byrne 2006), and the numbers and types of dependent and independent special districts continue to grow unabated (U.S. Bureau of the Census 2002). In addition, state governments have greatly expanded their use of tax abatement programs, capital subsidies, and enterprise zones in hopes of bringing economic growth to distressed areas (Greenbaum 2004). One of the most prevalent quasi-governmental institutions is the economic development corporation. While legal definitions vary greatly by state, an economic development corporation (EDC) is typically a non-profit corporation overseen by a board of directors made up of representatives of business, state and local government, and the public at-large (Wisconsin State Code 2006). The general purpose of an EDC is to improve the economic climate within a specific region (Oregon State Code 2006), county (Kansas State Code 2006) or municipality (Texas State Code 2006). Towards this end, an EDC pursues a number of strategies such as publicizing local tourism, enhancing a city's central business district, providing low-interest loans to new businesses, and planning local development. EDC's are funded through an assortment of means, including contributions from participating businesses and local governments (North Dakota State Code 2006), loan and service payments (New Mexico State Code 2006), and specially designated sale taxes (Texas State Code 2006). While it would seem that the creation of such institutions as business improvement districts, enterprise zones, and economic development corporations should be largely driven by economic need, the literature suggests caution before accepting such a conclusion (Greenbaum 2004). Indeed, Burns (1994) asserts that the formation of new governmental organizations is often intended to benefit specific public and private entrepreneurs. Focusing upon municipalities and special districts, Burns notes that groups which successfully instigate and complete the process of incorporation are well-positioned to institutionalize their own values as a central component of the new organization, be it a desire for low taxes or the provision of select services. These findings serve as a basis for much of the subsequent research on local boundary change (Foster 1997; Feiock and Carr 2001). Unfortunately, the U.S. Bureau of the Census does not monitor economic development corporations and few states follow their activities after formation. In addition, academic theory and research in connection to EDC's remains limited (Olberding 2002). Consequently, this analysis examines the ability of the most prominent theories of local boundary change to account for variations in the use of economic development corporations across the state of Texas. Texan EDC's have been selected for study due to their prominent role in the development of local economic policy as well as the fact that they are created through public referendums sponsored by municipal governments (Texas Office of the Comptroller 2004). The analysis uses negative binomial distributions to test whether economic conditions at the county level drove the proliferation of EDC's throughout Texas during the late 1990's or if more political considerations were at work. EXPLANATIONS FOR LOCAL BOUNDARY CHANGE "Boundaries determine who is included within a jurisdiction and define local arrangements of service provision and production, patterns of economic development, and the exercise of political power" (Feiock and Carr 2001, 383). …

Poverty Status and Willingness to Pay for Local Public Services

Abstract: INTRODUCTION The myth that the poor are unable to pay for fundamental services such as water and electricity continues to plague and hinder expanded coverage to poor communities in and around most cities. The poor do pay, and often pay more than if they were formally connected to city services. To overcome this myth and increase the poor's access to basic services, city governments should identify the needs and demands of the community, including residents and businesses. Governments often justify their use of universal subsidies by stating that subsidized services will help the poorest. However, it is exactly because services are subsidized for everyone, including those who easily could pay, that service providers do not recuperate sufficient costs to be able to expand and improve service networks in poorer areas. (USAID 2002). The procurement, finance, and distribution of local public services (police, fire, sewer, water, and sanitation) have been a subject of enduring interest to scholars of local government (Lineberry, 1977). Even at present, each of these issues remains a matter of intense debate in local government (Warner and Hefetz, 2002; Morgan and England, 1996). Of these concerns, perhaps no other engenders as much anxiety as generating the enormous resources required in providing local government services (Bartle 2003; Howe and Reeb, 1997). While local governments depend on an array of resource streams, some carefully engineered out of the sheer ingenuity of local managers themselves (Grant, 1990; Cummings, 1988), direct contributions by residents in the form of taxes and user fees remain a significant portion of these funding sources (Bartle, 2003). Ideally, residents are expected to pay and local governments are supposed to utilize those funds in procuring public services for the community. However and not surprisingly given the imperatives of rational behavior in the consumption of public goods and services (Galvin and Lockhart 1990; Finkel, et al., 1989), the story has produced something of a paradox, at least it seemed (Welch, 1985). On the one hand, there are the residents who continue to anticipate and demand more and better services from their local governments (Van Ryzin, 2004). But the same "citizen customers" are hardly exuberant when it comes to paying the rising cost of government (Fjeldstad, 2004). In fact, the difficulty with getting compliance from residents does not end with mere passive reluctance to contribute. For some time now, tax revolt, epitomized in the 1980s by Reagan administration's popularized mantra of "no new taxes," has become a subject of passionate discussion in local government (Sears and Citrin, 1982). While the forms of the revolt may vary across communities (Ragan, 2006), a unifying feature is the active empowerment of residents in prescribing the trajectory of revenue growth, especially those revenue streams associated with direct contributions by residents. Evidently, residents are prepared to sanction radical "tax-and-spend" politicians unwilling to heed the call to rein in revenue growth by advocating new or more taxes and user fees (Fabry, 2004). Local governments, although confronted with limited and dwindling resources to meet the service mandates of their residents, especially since the phasing out of revenue sharing, now exercise a common refrain in forcing residents' hands when it comes to demanding new revenue. Instead, these governments continue to source creative service delivery systems designed to unravel new ways to meet increasing demand for services (Kelly, 2003; Kelly and Swindell, 2002: 271). Try as they may, though, it is abundantly clear that local governments cannot do without that portion of their revenues that comes directly from residents (Bartle, 2003). But with the looming threat of punishment at the ballot box, many cities have become timid in canvassing residents for new revenues employing, whenever they dared, more citizen-based approval mechanisms such as initiatives and referenda designed to pacify residents and ward off potential backlash (Beck, et al. …

Race, Poverty and the Environment: Toward a Global Perspective

Abstract: THE CONTEXT It could be argued that none of American environmentalism's constituent elements holds greater transformative potential than the environmental justice (EJ) movement. The EJ discourse has brought a new range of environmental issues to the fore, including waste disposal site selection, the location of potentially hazardous economic activities, and the asymmetry of health risks found in the modern American home (ATSDR, 1988; Goldman, 1992; Lavelle & Coyle, 1992). But more than that, EJ lends a new dimension to virtually every decision regarding environmental degradation (Rhodes, 2003). Where before we saw only issues of man versus the environment we are now also haunted by the spectre of man versus man. Every problem of environmental protection now seems to present a challenge to both our scientific imagination and our sense of distributional justice. EJ is, so to speak, the other side of the environmental coin. And while it has complicated the task of protecting the environment, the EJ movement has shown a way to make that task even more worthy of our attention. If we are sufficiently enlightened to both protect the environment and create more just institutions, we will have shown that saving mankind was truly worth the effort. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that the EJ movement seems to have had so little impact on what are sometimes referred to as "mainstream" environmental organizations. Edwardo Rhodes has argued that "the possibility that environmental regulations, policies, agendas, and private activities may burden or benefit some racial or income groups more than others simply has not been a major concern of the environmental movement ..." (2003, 11). A number of explanations have been offered for this (beyond the simple fact that social movements can be both more and less than their constituent institutions). First, it has been suggested that environmental groups have, historically, been populated by middle and upper-middle class whites who are motivated primarily by their search for romantic or transcendental experiences associated with protecting nature (Taylor, 1989). As true as that description might be of individuals, it is far too facile and almost certainly false as an explanation of the agenda building patterns of organizations. For one thing, this view assumes that citizens' attitudes and priorities are personal characteristics rather than the result of cueing directed at them by opinion leaders, the media, or other persons outside of their immediate social environment. It also assumes that organizational agendas are responses to the preferences of individuals within the organization rather than to external pressures brought to bear by the other institutions, the media, or public opinion. Needless to say, both of these assumptions are open to serious doubt (Munger, 2000). Moreover, this explanation would appear to assume that people of color are incapable of transcendental sensibilities and that, in turn, whites who are possessed of those sensibilities are incapable of any others. Neither the religious and philosophical sophistication of the civil rights movement, nor the role played in it by whites, supports those rather invidious assumptions. Another possible explanation for the gulf between the EJ movement and environmentalism generally is that environmental protection is a universalistic value that (intentionally or otherwise) is blind to the special concerns of any discrete social group or population. The foremost example of this universalist orientation is the current popularity of risk and risk analysis as organizing concepts in environmentalism. Most theories of risk concentrate on individual decision makers and problems of rational choice. At this level, the problem of environmental justice is reduced by economists to the fact that those who are economically disadvantaged have a lower "willingness to pay" for environmental protection and, therefore, end up bearing a larger share of the environmental burdens of economic activity (Sunstein, 2005). …

Housing Choice, Outcomes, and Neighborhood Characteristics in Housing Programs for Individuals with a Serious Mental Illness: Analysis of a Phoenix Survey of Individuals with Serious Mental Illness

Abstract: INTRODUCTION While research has recently documented the importance of housing assistance to individuals with a serious mental illness (SMI), research is inconclusive as to the relative importance of different types of housing assistance for individuals with serious mental illnesses in relation to their well-being or integration into the community. More specifically, the relative importance of individual characteristics, including their socio-demographic factors, differently structured housing programs, and the environmental context (neighborhood level variables) to client success is not well researched. Yet, these factors are of critical importance in further understanding how various programs, including housing, can be designed and implemented to help individuals with serious mental illnesses integrate into the community (mainstreamed). For example, are there particular client socio-economic characteristics which interact either positively or negatively and allow for more successful housing program placements? Are there neighborhood characteristics, such as a concentration of residents receiving other types of assisted housing subsidies in a neighborhood, and are these concentrations associated with differential reintegration outcomes? Finally, is there an interactive effect among these three types of factors (individual, neighborhood context, and type of housing program), and if so, what, and under what conditions? BACKGROUND The 1970s brought about the deinstitutionalization era, which was a movement to discharge individuals with serious mental illnesses from state mental health facilities in order to reintegrate them into mainstream society. The shift in how individuals with a serious mental illness were treated is highlighted by the fact that in 1955 there were 559,000 individuals in state hospitals. Despite the fact that the nation's population increased by over 100 million from 1955 to 1998, there were only just over 57,000 individuals in state hospitals by the end of 1998 (Lamb and Bachrach 2001). The deinstitutionalization era also corresponded to the increased use of psychotropic medications to control the effects of severe mental illness and facilitated the discharge of this population from state hospitals. Torrey (1997) estimated that deinstitutionalization had resulted in 2.2 million severely mentally ill patients without supportive psychiatric services. The fact that individuals were more dependent on these psychotropic medications also increased their dependence on community-based supportive services. Deinstitutionalization placed poorly understood demands on both community-based alternative care for those with a severe mental illness, as well as government-assisted housing services, therefore resulting in a lack of community-based support services to meet the needs of this population. Without the proper support, many of these individuals were out on the streets, and nationally, the homeless population began to increase. It is estimated that between one-third and one-half of the homeless were individuals with a serious mental illness (National Institute of Mental Health, 2000). In order to more effectively utilize housing resources, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) adopted a strategy of providing housing programs that would cover the entire housing continuum of care. These programs would not only provide housing assistance to those of low and moderate income, but also to the nation's special populations, including the disabled and individuals with a serious mental illness (HUD, 1995 ) Additionally, the mental health community realized that they, too, would need to provide a continuum of mental health services in communities including case management, medication, and other services designed to provide preparation and support for those now living in the community (Fosburg, et al. 1997). In the 1980's the "continuum approach" came under criticism for not being able to meet the changing needs of individuals with a serious mental illness (Dickey, et. …

Kill the King, Love Your Neighbor

Abstract: Can we love our neighbors as ourselves? Though never stated explicitly in this form, I believe that this is nevertheless the central question or problem posed by David Farmer (2005b) in To Kill the King. No doubt love, we know, has figured prominently in much of Farmer's other work (Farmer, 2002a, 2002b, 2003a, 2003b, 2005a). But does neighbor-love warrant such pride of place in a text that incites symbolic regicide? Can killing the king--which entails "changing the symbolic systems in citizens' heads" (p. xix)--create conditions for loving our neighbors and open us to a poetics of post-traditional governance? I believe (or hope) so. LOVE'S LABOR What work does "love" do in Farmer's text? Love is probably the central idea in that it orients us towards the text's other concepts, plays, and arguments. He writes, "The post-traditional practitioner is, and should be, motivated as a regulative ideal by love. I'm suggesting she should not stick merely with efficiency as a regulative ideal for motivation. Post-traditional governance is, and should be, fueled by love for the regulative ideal of, like Romeo and Juliet and vice versa, love for each whole person-in-her-herself in-her-difference" (p. 178). For love to work as a regulative idea is not, however, to encourage an abstract or celebrity-like declaration, "I love you all." It is rather a concern with the personal and the concrete. "Such a focus involves relating to the individual person in her uniqueness. It is a being-with, a caring-for, the individual whole person" (p. 179). Love as motivation involves a shift from rules-for-groups to a focus on the individual person and her situation, life, and difference, "warts and all." A post-traditional governance, then, is directed "toward each whole person-in-herself in-her-difference achieving her full potential" (p. 36) THE GOLDEN RULE In close connection to the discussion of love, Farmer trains attention on the Golden Rule--Do to others, as you would that they do to you. What intrigues Farmer about this cross-cultural "jingle" (as he whimsically calls it) is that it "turns to what [he] thinks is a lacuna in justice thinking" and in its open-endedness "encourages the moral creativity of the T in shaping an individual's--and a bureaucracy's relationship to the other" (p. 114). To unpack this a little, we can say that Farmer considers justice as a practice of seeking, which is itself a way of "coping with the substance and form" (p. 76) of the historical legacy of "justice situations" in which we find ourselves. That is, we all have inherited a world within which we come to understand and appreciate questions of justice as well as the "substance of what needs to be put right and the form of how it can be put right" (p. 75). One justice insight from that tradition is the Golden Rule. For Farmer the Golden Rule is appealing for its openendedness, which is an ethical sensibility to be preferred to prescriptive "off the shelf (p. 83) ethical systems or system logics that promise a "standard or criterion of right action" (p. 115). These systems do not encourage seeking but endeavor to bring such seeking to an end, to closure. By contrast, the Golden Rule encourages justice-as-seeking within ourselves (How do I wish to be treated?) and in and through relationship with the other (How will I treat the other?). Justice-as-seeking, thus, cultivates an ethic of unlimited personal responsibility through relationships both with the self and the other. As Farmer writes in his discussion of deconstruction, "The administrator cannot say that justice requires her to do X; the judge cannot say that justice requires her to pass this or that sentence; and so on" (p. 137). Rather judges and administrators "must take unlimited responsibility on [their] own personal shoulders for each and every aspect of [their] official acts. The man of system bears infinite responsibility and . . . is accountable without limit" (p. …

Administrative Reform in the States

Abstract: Administrative reform is a topic that has spanned a century of academic and applied thought. As the size and complexity of managing federal, state, and local administration grew so did the necessity to reform administrative practice. At the state level, four historical periods provided a fertile context for the application of administrative reform. The initial impetus for administrative reform gained steam following the hearty criticisms of the spoils system, and were echoed in some of the first writings of our field (Wilson, 1887). The second period was associated with increasing expansion of government programs and services during and after the progressive era. The reaction to expansion included calls for consolidation of the cabinet, streamlining of the agencies, centralized control over agencies, and improved efficiency and effectiveness. Following the progressive era, administrative reform continued to be a topic of concern to public managers in the states. As part of the "turfwar" of running the agencies, both the executive and legislative branches studied administrative issues and commonly made recommendations on how to fix the management apparatus of the state. Administrative reform smoldered more than it blazed. The next big push for administrative reform came during 1960s as the war on poverty raged and expansion of government services peaked to a then all-time high. Administrative reform of this era focused on consolidating programs or services, instituting programmed-based budgeting, and improving efficiency and effectiveness. The most current renaissance of administrative reform began in the 1980s, and was visibly pronounced by the mid-to-late 1990s. The recent spike can be directly traced to the rise in Total Quality Management (TQM) applications in the private sector that spilled over into the public sphere, and prognosticators like Osborne and Gaebler (1992) who pronounced that TQM and other interventions could improve public administration. The recent rise in administrative reform has also been interesting in that is has been somewhat sustainable. Many of the past "waves of reform" as Light (1997, 2006) so aptly put it, were perhaps shorter in duration and not associated with a comprehensive reform agenda like the recent period. The most recent outcropping of administrative reform has been marked by several splintered movements that gained steam at one time or another (Kettl, 2005). First there was TQM. Then came Osborne and Gaebler's (1992) influence on "best practices," and business process reengineering (Burstein, 1995; Linden, 1994). Best practices and business process reengineering were oriented toward continuous improvement in a free-market environment with the main goal of customer satisfaction and enhanced accountability of public managers (Osborne and Plastrik, 2000). Finally, the movement morphed into the New Public Management (NPM) which promised market competition as the way to deliver efficiency and effectiveness, if not responsiveness. NPM attempted to stimulate innovation and creativity by reducing controls on inputs and increasing the accountability of managers. Collectively, the recent administrative reforms helped to facilitate a "management centered" movement (Vanagunas, 1999) that "called for more extensive use of the private sector and techniques adapted from business administration, such as sharpening an agency's mission focus, encouraging measurement of results, and relaxing internal rules and regulations" (Brudney and Wright, 2002, p. 355). In the states, these sorts of changes required the governor to act in the capacity of a CEO, and required agency executives to utilize management techniques to bring about change. In the trenches with public managers, administrative reform activity at the state-level has been remarkable. Clearly the states have been laboratories of democracy in regard to administrative reform because the current brand of reform has taken shape by its pronounced application in the states. …

Redressing Information Inequality through Social Justice Research: The Case of Environmental Justice

Abstract: INTRODUCTION A 2004 symposium issue of the International Journal of Public Administration explored the maturation of the field of public administration. In this issue Richard Johnson criticized the discipline for taking a narrow approach to questions of diversity and social equity by concentrating on issues of race and gender. He suggested the discipline refocus its efforts to include class-related research (Johnson, 2004) Other authors have documented the extent to which public administration research has focused on race and gender while neglecting social class (and sexual orientation). Oldfield, Chandler, and Johnson (2004) conducted a four country review (Australia, Brazil, Canada, United States) of public administration literature and found nearly all the social equity articles focused on race and gender with little attention to social class. The explanations offered for the lack of research on social class range from class bias in higher education to the "professionalization" of public administration. These authors have argued that low-income families are the most underrepresented group at major universities. This is true among both students and faculty, few of whom have significant personal experience with issues of social class (Oldfield, Chandler, & Johnson, 2004, p. 165-166) The authors also argue that because "professionalization [of public administration] promotes and responds to the needs of the state, it can and often does set the permissible limits of scholarly debate." Consequently, there is an almost total neglect of (or relative silence about) the distribution of wealth in a "society of unequal social classes?" (Johnson, 2003, p. 512). While community activists often find this frustrating, understanding the source of the problem is essential to reframing appeals for greater attention to issues of social equity. Another possible explanation for this blind spot of public administration research on the subject of social class is that the concept, whatever its explanatory power, does not constitute a "strategic" variable in our system of government. To put the matter indelicately, it is illegal to discriminate against someone because of race, but it isn't illegal to discriminate against someone who is poor. Public administrators understand (better than most) that race is a political and legal trump card. By comparison, social class is an interesting phenomenon, but not a potent category. Racial discrimination comes "prepackaged" with its own sense of urgency and a readily apparent range of solutions. Given these background facts, public administration researchers, particularly those who target a practitioner audience, might be forgiven if they respond more eagerly to what the law problematizes than to what it tacitly permits. But as Oldfield, Candler, & Johnson (2004) suggest, the American Society for Public Administration Code of Ethics exhorts researchers to take a proactive approach to issues of social class and inequity and urges them to work to improve and change laws and policies that are counterproductive or obsolete. Understanding this problematic relationship between the legal environment and professional ethics of public administration allows social activists to better focus their organizing and lobbying activities. Finally, the lack of social class research also has its roots in the general state of public administration. Streib and Roch (2005) reviewed critiques of public administration research and identified "hard" and "soft" barriers to strengthening public administration research. These barriers, or boundaries, "limit the quality of methods used in public administration research" (p. 38). Hard boundaries include lack of available data to support a study and lack of adequate funding to develop resources/data sets. Soft boundaries include research as a low priority, low-quality dissertations and doctoral training ineffectiveness. Streib and Roch do not explicitly define appropriate topics, but cite observations about the need for "long-term studies of administrative phenomena. …

Socrates Redux: A Roundabout Exegesis of David Farmer's to Kill the King

Abstract: "The medium is the message." --Marshall McLuhan INTRODUCTION I want to say at the outset that I am delighted to be afforded the opportunity to appreciate in writing David Farmer's To Kill the King. I consider this book to be a major and distinctive contribution to the field of public administration and to the discourse about the future of government in the United States as well. The theme that Farmer has pursued in his body of work and that he continued into this book has been consistent but to some a bit enigmatic. I have commented about this in the past and have presented my own interpretation of what it seems he is "up to." As I reflected on this history and considered how best to use the space available here I concluded that it would help to set my comments against a backdrop perspective. Such a perspective, I hope, will clarify and give specific content to my more general comments assessing the relevance and profound meaning I see in Farmer's vision of post traditionalist public administration and governance. The Backdrop It is said that the great, famous, and radical sociologist, C. Wright Mills, asked the following question of every student that he examined at a Ph.D. oral defense: "Who benefits from this dissertation?" The point he was making is that no act of creating knowledge can be entirely neutral; each such act will have effects that benefit some person, cause, or interest, and, at the same time, that impose a cost on some other. For Mills, this point held not only for the substance of the knowledge but also for the medium through which it was expressed. Mills wrote during a time of conformity, a post war time, when, quite naturally, what people generally wanted was stability, predictability, and "normality." (It is no accident, of course, that "functionalism"--the great social science paradigm of middle class life--reached its zenith and attained virtual hegemony in academic life in the U.S. during this time.) In this context what Mills wanted to draw attention to was not just that dissensus and even conflict have a positive role to play in social life, but that the form taken by social life itself, even within the most hoary and hierarchical of institutions, is never that of a closed space. His point was that there is always room for legitimate nonconformity, for the accretion of power, information, and expertise into positions not specified in formal arrangements, and, in short, for refusing orders, shaking things up, or behaving in ways not established by formal processes. Most of the time the leeway afforded by this space is useful in correcting the institution's tendency toward self contradiction and the defeat of its own purposes. What Mills' point suggests is that the formal structures that constitute the world of social life are held together not by the official prescriptions of their structure and by "leaders" as much as by the ongoing interpretive and collaborative work of the people who staff them--aided no doubt by collaboration on the part of those who are subject to their programs. In other words, there is a great amount of space in formal structures, and it is people, as they live social life, who take up this "slack" by cooperatively making sense of it and creating lines of action in order to cope with the ongoing stream of situations that confront organizations and institutions. This point comes, of course, as no revelation. It is the heart of the "interpretivist" approach to understanding social life, and the many versions of the truths that have been elaborated from this perspective have now become commonplace to those who study organizational dynamics. Richard Sennett's recent book The Culture of Contemporary Capitalism explains quite clearly the kind of space that exists in formal organizations and the way that it allows critically important inner expertise to develop within the ranks of its personnel. This experience and expertise, he argues, is critical to the viability of formal systems and to society generally. …

Critical Social Analysis and Service Learning Methods: Investigating Social Class and Inequality through MPA Courses

Abstract: INTRODUCTION Public policy and administration courses at the graduate level tend to focus on the professional development of government administrators and managers. This development is generally understood within the context of improving government efficiency and effectiveness through performance measurements and cost effectiveness (Kingdon, 1984; Lindbloom, 1980). However, little course preparation is given to skills that would help public managers better understand the power arrangements that impact the very programs that managers oversee. Arguably, doing social analysis through critical theory and service learning methods, can help as an instructional tool to bridge the gap that exists between theory and practice in the professional preparation of public managers (Martin, 2002; Martin 2003). The combination of critical social analysis and direct experience through service learning provides a much needed venue in the preparation of public managers. This approach provides for reflection on policies and programs based on the analysis of power arrangements that impact issues of race, gender, and social class. BACKGROUND During the second half of the nineteenth century, social scientists such as August Comte began using empirical methods to describe social change (Comte, 1875; Comte, 1876). However it was Karl Marx, during this same time period, who introduced an innovative form of systematic analysis that examined social arrangements based on the distribution of power. These arrangements were assessed on the basis of emerging industrial capitalist substructures inherent within Western society. For Marx, social criticism played a pivotal role in identifying the authoritarian trends of anti-Enlightenment traditions. Thus in The German Ideology (1845) Marx states, "The class having the means of material production has also control over the means of intellectual production, so that ... the ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant [social class]" (p. 129). The emergence of Marxist social analysis has attempted to identify, to a large degree, the "rational" construct for Western society's economic organization, capitalism. In this analysis, Marx and his subsequent interpreters, concluded that industrial capital's prioritization of capital over labor has lead to the alienation and exploitation of people. Since capital (profit) and labor (wages) are pitted against each other, an inherent form of struggle exists between the two. For Marx, this social arrangement results in class antagonisms and serves as the basis of Marx's social analysis. Thus in The Communist Manifesto (1848) Marx states, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in contrast opposition to one another" (pp. 158-159). Besides Marx's approach to social analysis, other significant contributions have been made by social theorists such as Emil Durkheim and Max Weber. While he agreed for the most part with Marx's observations on class conflict, Durkhein nevertheless argued that rigid class systems tend to disappear as society becomes increasingly democratized. In The Division of Labor in Society (1933), Durkheim argued that the emergence of autonomous democratic systems can at times result from human solidarity and good will, precisely because self-interested individuals prefer social solidarity as opposed to class warfare. Durkheim viewed economic exploitation and poverty for the most part as a byproduct of a cyclical economy. In fact, Talcott Parsons in The Structure of Social Action (1937) argued that class struggle, at various moments in society, has been superseded by individuals in order to promote their mutual well-being and social cohesion. This phenomenon is examined in the empirical research of Ted Gurr who confirms the notion that the increased depravation of the oppressed tends to make them less likely to initiate any form of social upheaval. …