Why Public Service Matters: Public Managers, Public Policy, and Democracy

301 Pages·2014·4.132 MB·English

by  Robert F. Durant (auth.)

Why Public Service Matters
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Why Public Service Matters

Public Managers, Public Policy, and
Democracy
Robert F. Durant
why public service matters
Copyright © Robert F. Durant, 2014.
Softcover reprint of the harcover 1st edition 2014 978-0-230-34148-7
All rights reserved.
First published in 2014 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-0-230-34149-4 ISBN 978-1-137-06957-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137069573
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Durant, Robert F., 1949–
Why public service matters : public managers, public policy, and
democracy / Robert F. Durant.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Civil service—United States. 2. Public administration—United
States. I. Title.
JK692.D87 2014
351.73—dc23 2014012093
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: October 2014
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to past, present, and future members of the
career civil service, their teachers, and the leaders among them.
Good and able Men [and women] had better govern than be gover’d, since ‘tis pos-
sible, indeed highly probable, that if the able and good withdraw themselves from
Society, the venal and ignorant will succeed.
—Judge John Tyler
Contents

List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Chapter 1 Engaging the Call to Public Service 1
Chapter 2 Thinking Ecologically 23
Chapter 3 Linking Problems, Policy, and Public Management 43
Chapter 4 Aligning Structure and Strategy 59
Chapter 5 Shooting the Political Rapids 79
Chapter 6 Informing Policy Decisions 101
Chapter 7 Linking People to Public Purposes 125
Chapter 8 Stewarding a Nation’s Treasure 151
Chapter 9 Networking in the Shadow of Hierarchy 177
Chapter 10 Revitalizing a Sense of Common Purpose 197
Notes 217
Bibliography 255
Index 277
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Illustrations

Figures
5.1 Picket-Fence Federalism: The Professional-Bureaucratic Complex 85
7.1 Georgia’s Workforce Planning Model 132
8.1 Local General Revenue by Source, 2010 168
8.2 State General Revenue by Source, 2010 168
8.3 Federal Revenues by Source, Fiscal Year 2012 169
8.4 Sources of Federal Tax Revenue, 1945–2012 170
8.5 Tracking the State Dependency Rate 170
8.6 Federal Spending for the United States, FY 2014 171
8.7 State and Local Spending for the United States, FY 2014 172
8.8 Tax Expenditures Are Very Costly: Tax Expenditures and Outlays
for Other Major Spending Categories in 2012, in Billions 173
9.1 Americans Live under Both National and State Governments 184
10.1 Maryland’s Management Model 199
Tables
2.1 Impact on Average Incomes of Change in Income Distribution
between 1979 and 2009 28
4.1 Bureaucratic Characteristics and Pathologies 66
4.2 Collaborative Partnering 71
6.1 The Policy Process 107
8.1 The Congressional Budget Process Timetable 160
9.1 Two Competing Models of Implementation Analysis 186
9.2 Reversible Logic: Putting It All Together for Practice 188
9.3 eGovernment Net Benefits 190
9.4 Tractability of the Problem 191
9.5 Statutory Design 192
9.6 Changing Environmental Conditions 194
10.1 Example of a Democratic-Constitutional Impact Statement for the
Clinton–Gore National Performance Review 200
10.2 Example of a Democratic-Constitutional Scorecard Modeled on
OMB’s PMA Scorecard 201