Quicker, Better, Cheaper?

Managing Performance in American Government

Edited by Dall Forsythe

Subjects: Management
Imprint: Distribution Partners
Paperback : 9780914341864, 646 pages, October 2001
Hardcover : 9780914341857, 646 pages, October 2001

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Table of contents

Preface

I. Introduction

1. Introduction
Richard P. Nathan

2. What Types of Performance Information Should be Tracked?
Harry P. Hatry

II. Performance Management and the Federal Government: Skeptics and Enthusiasts

Skeptics

3. Getting Performance Measures to Measure Up
Allen Schick

4. The Economics of Performance Incentives in Government with Evidence from a Federal Job Training Program
Gerald Marschke

Enthusiasts

5. Implementing GPRA: Progress and Challenges
J. Christopher Mihm

6. Restoring, Results, and Accountability
Virginia L. Thomas

7. The Social Security Administration and Performance Management
Walter Broadnax and Kevin J. Conway

III. Performance Management and the Federalism Challenge

8. Performance Management: Does It Matter in the New World of Welfare?
L. Kate Boyer and Catherine Lawrence with Miriam Wilson

9. Federalism and Performance Management: Health Insurance, Food Stamps, and the Take-Up Challenge
James Fossett, Thomas Gais, and Frank J. Thompson

10. Empowerment Zones and the Promise of Accountability
David J. Wright

11. Intergovernmental Relationships and the Federal Performance Movement
Beryl A. Radin

IV. Performance Management in States and Local Governments

12. Beyond Measurement: Managing for Results in State Government
Patricia W. Ingraham and Donald P. Moynihan

13. Performance Budgeting in the States
Katherine G. Willoughby and Julia E. Melkers

14. Getting to Results in Florida
Roberts B. Bradley and Geraldo Flowers

15. Paying for Performance in Public Higher Education
Joseph C. Burke

16. Performance Management in the New York City: Compstat and the Revolutions in Police Management
Dennis C. Smith with William J. Bratton

V. Summing Up

17. Is the New Obsession with Performance Management Masking the Truth About Social Programs?
Ann B. Blalock and Burt S. Barnow

18. Pitfalls in Designing and Implementing Performance Management Systems
Dall W. Forsythe

Bibliography

About the Authors

Index

Scholars and practitioners explore American government performance management offering diverse views.

Description

This volume is a rich compendium of experience and diverse views about systems for introducing greater rationality in American governmental systems. With contributions from skeptics as well as proponents, it adds to the debate over the utility of performance management in American government. Focusing on the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), the authors also analyze performance budgeting and management in states and local governments.

Exploring the performance management movement, the book sets out the point and counterpoint between critics and supporters and provides a common vocabulary for discussion. Steps to improve performance measures are outlined, as well as a discussion of states' progress in managing for results. New survey data reporting on states' performance budgeting is also included.

The book reports on GPRA implementation at the Social Security Administration, advocates linking evaluation research with performance management systems, and discusses the limitations of performance incentives in the 1982 federal job training law.

Practitioners address the New York City Police Department's innovative "COMPSTAT" system for performance management, and review the recent history of performance budgeting in Florida. Also included are case studies from research scholars on benchmarking for Empowerment Zones, performance funding for higher education in the states, performance management in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program under the 1996 national welfare reform act, and performance issues in Medicaid, food stamps, and children's health insurance.

Dall Forsythe is a senior fellow at the Nelson A Rockefeller Institute of Government.