This Washington Post article reviews a book written by Elaine C. Kamarck, a former Clinton policy adviser and current lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government who thinks that the government of the future will be smaller, more efficient, and empty of bureaucrats. Picture Washington DC as Colonial Williamsburg, huge federal buildings as tourist attractions complete with historians dressed as politicians acting out the sleazy happy-glad-handling of yesteryear. While this may all be the stuff of social fiction, the idea is an interesting one. In the future an aging population, booming Indian and Chinese markets and the persistent threat of global terrorism may create the need for a government that is efficient highly networked, and staffed by the best and brightest our country has to offer. From the article:
Today's government is a "hodgepodge" that includes old-fashioned bureaucracies, public-private partnerships and outsourcing initiatives, Kamarck writes. But the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks reordered many federal priorities and, along with Hurricane Katrina, underscored why policymakers need to rethink their approaches to government, she says...
... Going forward, policymakers need to better match their goals to appropriate implementation strategies, Kamarck says. The models include:
- Reinvented government, where agencies operate without some of the traditional trappings of bureaucracy and use performance measures to track programs and services. This approach seems suited for routine functions, such as determining eligibility for benefits, or a high level of security, such as airport passenger and baggage screening.
- Government by network, where agencies provide funding to universities, laboratories, nonprofit and for-profit organizations to do the work that the government wants done. This approach serves policies that require innovation, such as developing weapons for the Cold War or collecting intelligence on terrorism.
- Government by market, where the government uses state power to create a market that fulfills a public purpose. This approach involves few, if any, federal employees and little or no public money and typically involves a policy aimed at changing the way millions of citizens behave, such as creating an incentive for people to stop driving gas-guzzling cars.
The article continues that public officials pay scale should be comparable to that of the private sector. Food for thought.