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.