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This volume brings together the innovative ideas of 21 of America's
leading governors and mayors expressed in their own words. The book
features contributions carefully collected and selected over
several years, including chapters by former Governors George Bush
of Texas and Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin and Mayors Giuliani and
Daley of New York and Chicago respectively.
The editors have cast these varied contributions within the
framework of "the New Public Management," whose main elements are:
(1) reverting to core functions; (2) devolving authority and
decentralizing; (3) "rightsizing," or limiting the size and scope
of government; (4) restoring civil society; (5) adopting market
principles; (6) managing for results, satisfying citizens, and
holding government accountable; (7) empowering employees, citizens,
and communities; and (8) introducing e-government and modern
technology.
Most of the chapters exemplify more than one of these elements. The
most common theme of these officials is their use of market forces
and principles to improve the conditions of their states and
cities. Another common thread is empowering employees, citizens,
and communities. Several officials describe their success in
reforming education and others to their technological innovations
and achievements; others describe their fundamental and
thoroughgoing management reforms.
States and cities-small and large-are represented here, and their
leaders illustrate and illuminate the kinds of forward thinking
that can profitably be adopted elsewhere to achieve similar
success. This book is intended to help make that happen.
This volume brings together the innovative ideas of 21 of America's
leading governors and mayors expressed in their own words. The book
features contributions carefully collected and selected over
several years, including chapters by former Governors George Bush
of Texas and Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin and Mayors Giuliani and
Daley of New York and Chicago respectively.
The editors have cast these varied contributions within the
framework of "the New Public Management," whose main elements are:
(1) reverting to core functions; (2) devolving authority and
decentralizing; (3) "rightsizing," or limiting the size and scope
of government; (4) restoring civil society; (5) adopting market
principles; (6) managing for results, satisfying citizens, and
holding government accountable; (7) empowering employees, citizens,
and communities; and (8) introducing e-government and modern
technology.
Welfare reform was a spectacular success in New York under Mayor
Giuliani despite the city's history of liberal social programs and
its huge, entrenched welfare system. The city reduced the numbers
on welfare from 1,120,000 to 460,000 by changing the organizational
culture, protecting against fraud, insisting on 'work first,'
adapting information technology, and contracting for job placement.
The organizational culture was transformed by bold leadership that
changed the welfare agency's mission and goals, overcame internal
resistance, and prevailed over politicians who had a vested
interest in the status quo and the media that were opposed to
welfare reform. Welfare fraud was largely eliminated by dropping
from the rolls those who were working and could not appear for
in-person interviews, by fingerprinting recipients to catch those
enrolled under multiple identities and those receiving welfare
checks from other jurisdictions, by uncovering hidden income, by
enrolling new applicants only after thorough investigation, and by
tightening controls to prevent fraud by corrupt employees. JobStat,
a computer-based system modeled after the Police Department's
system used to track precinct activity, was developed to track the
status of welfare recipients and to monitor the performance of the
'Job Centers,' which were formerly called welfare offices. JobStat
focused the attention of department personnel on performance
indicators rather than on minutely specified rules. The Giuliani
administration's major contribution to national welfare reform was
the creation of the only system in the country with large-scale,
alternative work arrangements that was able to acculturate large
numbers of the never-employed to the world of work.
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