Reinventing the Federal Government

Abstract

The election of President Clinton, a president interested in issues of public management, has been widely interpreted as creating a favorable climate for reform of the federal government. Indeed, within two months of his inauguration he established the most extensive review of the federal government since the 1930s, under the direction of Vice-President Al Gore (Gore, 1993). Concern over the performance of the federal government has been growing over recent years in Congress, within the civil service, and among the public. Departments and agencies continue to be widely criticized for continued mismanagement and practices conducive to abuse and corruption. Of course, while there may be a broad consensus — across the bureaucracy, the two parties, Congress, and the White House — of the pressing need for reform of some sort, achieving consensus on the precise nature of reform is likely to prove difficult.