Reaganism and Managing the Government

...It reinforces the enthusiastic, assuring them that their first impressions of the organization were correct and maintaining esprit against the effects of entropy...

...They saw no inconsistency because they believed that high levels of bureaucratic waste made it possible to significantly cut budgets while retaining services...

...What matters here is the intuitive plausibility of my hypothesis: Support for a program draws the aggressive and dedicated, and probably a good number of the intelligent and talented, into the public sector...

...The impact of Reaganism's negative attitude toward the bureaucracy on the management of government deserves separate consideration...

...Even the Reagan tax program, as communicated by the Great Communicator himself, took on a distinctly "off our backs" ring with his talk of letting people decide how to spend their money instead of having Washington make the decision for them...

...Those still holding office are likely to either languish in inner exile or leave as quickly as the job market allows...

...The blast against bureaucratic laziness is part of the "waste, fraud and abuse" charge leveled at Washington that includes such other complaints as cheating by welfare recipients...

...Further, my own entire line of criticism may be dismissed with the charge that it appears to be saying liberal domestic policies must be followed for government to have any chance of being well managed...

...Others are thought to beattracted by the power inherent in the ability to make or influence decisions that take on the force of law...

...An agency with zero appropriations can't get on the backs of the people, much less wallow in waste, fraud and abuse...

...That many domestic policy agencies today have devoted employees has not escaped notice...

...The alternative lament, dubbed the "getting government off our backs" approach, is more an ideological assault against the very notion that government has an active role to play in society...

...Groupwide fervor can grow out of the working environment, too, it is not necessarily something recruits must arrive with...

...IT MIGHT be objected that there are determined and bright conservatives, and that this Administration could bring them in to replace the committed liberals...

...1 am comparing, too, the motivations of students at Harvard Law School on the one hand, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard on the other...

...The difference is the source and timing of the commitment...

...I am thinking of those I know personally or have interviewed in the course of various research projects who work in government...

...Only after Reagan's election and the emergence of Office of Management and Budget Director David A. Stockman did the reality of large cuts appear...

...To be sure, the Reagan conception of government at its most extreme does not embrace the concerns I have presented...

...But the reality is that the President has not yet proposed the total elimination of the social welfare or regulatory functions of government...

...Getting government off our backs" appeals most to traditionally Republican constituencies...

...Be that as it may, things have not been equal since the establishment of the Great Society in the mid-'60s, and of the environmental, consumer protection and safety/health regulatory programs in the early '70s...

...As late as 1979, opinion surveys found Americans were about evenly divided on the essence of the issue, with 48 per cent favoring the sameor more Federal regulation of business and 47 per cent favoring less...

...Perhaps fanatical cost-cutting could really replace do-gooding...

...On the whole it is the less radical critique: It does not necessarily question Federal purposes, only their misuse by some citizens and the competence of government workers...

...The other sees bureaucrats as all too zealous about what they do—diligently seeking new ways to oppress citizens with onerous requirements for the design of workplace ladders and the installation of wheelchair ramps in every public building...

...Given the way the Civil Service system functions, convincing employees to look upon their jobs as a vocation is especially crucial...

...In lower levels of career Civil Service, though, the Reaganites face big difficulties getting good people who share their views—with the important exceptions of defense and foreign policy...

...It is therefore not only liberals who have to worry that the present ideological assault on the bureaucracy will make government worse...

...The most fashionable current example of this—no less valid for its fashion-ableness—is the experience of Japanese industry...

...Kristol sees something sinister in this: Such individuals become the main constituency for government activism out of self-interest...

...Granted, liberals have a far broader agenda for government and consequently a greater interest in seeing it managed effectively...

...Thinking Aloud REAGANISM AND MANAGING THE GOVERNMENT BY STEVEN KELMAN TWO IMAGES of the Federal bureaucracy have fueled the popular resentment against "big government" that the Reagan Administration has so richly exploited...

...Blacks and women have been said to seek government jobs because they believe there is less discrimination in the public than in the private sector...

...First, in a hostile atmosphere most domestic policy agencies lose many of their best people, while much of the dead weight is left in place...

...In the light of that opinion, how the government performs its functions hardly matters, since the government shouldn't have any functions to perform...

...The reasons for this are simple...

...Second, bad-mouthing the bureaucracy severely damages attempts to instill Federal employees with a sense of mission, a vital element in promoting dedicated performance...

...Especially over the last few years as economic stress has limited the possibilities for contributing to the shaping of our society, Washington has become attractive to younger managers loath to join the corporate world, an appealing alternative to working for a poverty law center in a migrant labor camp or as a freelance writer...

...Reaganism's ideological assault on government, in contrast, deals a direct blow to bureaucrats who believe in the programs they are a part of...

...This reflects the President's expressed philosophy, but the Reagan camp has not hesitated to take advantage of both sentiments in pursuit of its desire to reduce the Federal presence...

...But the same ideological assault that hurts Washington's ability to keep or attract dedicated people discourages a sense of pride and diminishes drive...

...When bureaucrats who have come to believe that their responsibility is to succor the downtrodden and right injustice are blasted for placing a venal government on people's backs, morale drops and performance suffers...

...The attack is likely to nurture indolence and incompetence by decreasing the proportion of able, eager people in career Civil Service positions, and by undercutting the ability of government agencies to instill the requisite sense of mission...

...Measures that businessmen use to motivate workers, such as the carrots of large bonuses and rapid promotion or the stick of dismissal, are rarely feasible for government managers...

...The unavoidable conclusion, in sum, is that Reaganism's onslaught against the bureaucracy can only hinder any effort to eliminate the waste, fraud and abuse that constitute the most widespread beef against "big government...

...Instilling a sense of mission also plays a role beyond giving the initially apathetic—frequently the majority—ardor approaching that of the previously persuaded...

...In any event, since he assumed the Presidency, Reagan's policies have been aimed more at meeting the concern of t hose who consider the government overbearing than at coping with the inefficiency that seems to trouble most Americans...

...Indeed, I would suggest that the availability of jobs that allow individuals to work without doing violence to their convictions, liberal or conservative, is a healthy social underpinning for political pluralism...

...True, the Administration has had little trouble persuading fine conservatives to head Federal agencies...

...It may be difficult as well to enlist crusaders to free the American spirit from the shackles of government out of the very ranks that imposed the "shackles...

...Managers typically view sparking this sort of dedication as a critical aspect of leading effectively, for the greater the proportion of eager employees, the easier it is to accomplish assigned tasks...

...Yet recruiting for top posts has never been, and is not ever likely to be, a chore: the power of the positions guarantees that...

...perhaps with the Reagan stress on dismantling programs that hamper freedom (or, even more horrible, hurt the economy), managers and managed will glory in battering down the Washington-imposed barriers to America's new beginning...

...Moreover, the frequently greater difficulty of gauging the results of government actions in "bottom line" profit and loss terms complicates matters: It is harder for managers to know whether subordinates are performing well...

...WHY, AFTER ALL, do people go to work for the government...

...Yet this is new, and there is still evidence of strong public approval for strictly regulating the environment and workplace safety, two of the biggest sources of Republican "off our backs" hostility...

...There is, of course, an implicit contradiction between these two views...

...But even Reagan-ites should be concerned about the competent performance of the domestic policy functions of government that they agree need to be carried out...

...But it is obscure to me why those pur-suing government jobs compatible with their inclination to do good are subject to question, while those entering the private sector to satisfy their inclination to make money raise no comment...

...During the same period, the percentage agreeing that "government is run by people who don't know what they're doing" rose dramatically from just over one-fifth to 63 per cent...

...Or to choose a precedent closer to home, in his classic study of the United States Forest Service, Herbert Kaufman showed how morale-building devices—from training in the philosophy of the organization to (believe it or not) distinctive uniforms?helped account for the good performance of forest rangers...

...One pictures bureaucrats as slothful and ineffectual—wasting tax dollars through a propensity to dole out money for research on the sex lives of butterflies...

...In fact, I think that just as the potential for making America a better place inspired bright, idealistic people to take up mid-level career positions in Washington during the New Deal, a significant number of the past decade's bureaucrats have chosen their jobs out of acommit-ment to the substantive goals of their departments...

...Most Americans seem to have such a low opinion of civil servants that they would be skeptical whether performance could be any worse than it already is...

...The Administration stated early on, for instance, that it was looking for individuals "meaner than a junkyard dog" to be Inspectors General in Cabinet departments...

...Still others, preferring to avoid the vicissitudes of the private job market, have been drawn by the relatively superior job security of government...

...As a candidate, Ronald Reagan appealed to this feeling when he stated that essential programs would be maintained without additional sacrifices by pruning away "waste, fraud and abuse...

...Then t here is the age-old bane of t he Civil Service: To the extent that the pay and/or chances for advancement are not on a level with private business, government tends to be the refuge, everything else being equal, of the less able...

...Much of the budget cutting, whatever else one might say about it, is not directed at what the average citizen has in mind when he thinks of wasteor fraud or abuse...

...Although the abstract slogan undoubtedly sounds attractive to many Americans, no majority support existed for its specific content until very recently...

...In 1980 the figures did swing to a 54-38 per cent majority for reducing regulation...

...Analyzing survey data about attitudes toward taxes and government (in connection with the passage of Proposition 13 in California), Seymour Martin Lipset has pointed out that the bulk of the voters favored both lower taxes and the continuation of most important domestic programs...

...In addition to the public's skepticism, the results of declining competence and demoralization are likely to be perceived only indirectly—as the environment gets even dirtier than the Administration would want to allow, consumers are less protected, the poor become more desperate...

...Conceivably, corruption scandals among Federal regulatory officials or inspectors could occur and be noticed, yet the public might not appreciate just how uncommon scandals of that kind among Federal civil servants have been in the past...

...Instead, the dead weights and the indifferent will listlessly carry on, and theCivii Service will thus gradually become more freighted down with time-servers...

...Some may protest that, the bleeding hearts notwithstanding, Reagan-era agencies have their own missions to motivate them...

...The promised "regulatory relief is an unambiguous ideological bow...

...My evidence for this phenomenon is admittedly impressionistic...

...In any case, my argument here is confined to domestic agencies...

...Perhaps it suspects, as I do, that the incompetence of public servants gets most Americans angrier than the fact of their existence...

...And the damage that Reaganism can do to the Civil Service by driving out the good people and leaving the system in the hands of the time-servers is long term...

...Apparently there is a consensus among most of his political associates that some level of regulatory effort in pollution control, safety and health regulation and social welfare is desirable...

...The problem is, by and large intelligent conservatives have demonstrated little desire to work in the middle echelons of bureaucracy...

...Economists and the Environment, is an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard'sKennedy School of Government...

...But the dilemma facing Reaganism in terms of the management of the Executive Branch is that efforts to minimize the importance of the Federal bureaucracy are likely to increase laziness and incompetence where the government must continue to function...

...Some neoconserva-tive writers, particularly Irving Kristol, haveemphasizedtheincreasingaffinity of educated people of liberal persuasion—the so-called "new class"—for public work...

...In a number of interviews after arriving in Washington, for example, Secretary of the Treasury Donald T. Regan noted that one of his greatest surprises was the dedication and intelligence of the top career people at Treasury...

...Perhaps these anomalies are attributable to the higher status of the State Department and the national security agencies, a prestige historically validated by distinguished members of the nation's old-family elite serving in them...

...That is surely possible, yet very doubtful...

...Between 1964-80 the percentage of Americans who said they believe the Washington bureaucracy wastes "a lot" of tax dollars jumped from under half to an overwhelming 78 per cent...

...STEVEN KELMAN, author most recently of Regulating America, Regulating Sweden and What Price Incentives...

...Encouraging a feeling of purpose among employees improves performance much the way hiring persons already deeply convinced of an organization's value does...

...Bureaucrats will have a hard time working up enthusiasm for a battle against Federal waste that is to a large extent directed at cutting back their incomes, reducing their benefits and in many cases laying them off...

...Certainly managers in any organization, public or private, will welcome the availability of people who work hard and care about what they do...

...It is a matter of historical record that campaign-vintage supply-siders also repeatedly claimed taxes could be sharply reduced without any budget cuts, because the Laffer effect would bring in greater revenues at the lower rates...

...In January 1976 the New York Times quoted Ronald Reagan as declaring, "I've always thought that the best thing government can do is nothing...

...To begin with, many idiosyncratic factors that would apply anywhere are involved, ranging from the chance recommendation of a friend to commuting convenience...

...Where other systematic factors relating to the nature of government employment may produce a poor quality of civil servant, in other words, this factor tends to significantly raise the quality...

...And these problems are exacerbated by the reductions in force many agencies are experiencing, by pay hikes being held to less than half the inflation rate, as well as by retaining ceilings on salaries for top career managers (at about $50,000 a year) so that many of them have received no raises for several years...

...As observers of Japanese firms have noted, the various steps taken to foster worker identification with, say, Mitsubishi or Honda (everything from company songs to lifetime employment) contribute mightily to the country's industrial success...

...IT IS difficult to sound the alarm about the effects of Reaganism on managing the government...

...Most of them find the private sector not only more remunerative but more congenial...

...It is a problem for the Reagan Administration as well...

...Nor is it probable that they will be replaced by enthusiastic junior level personnel...

...I think those who have had intimate experience with the bureaucracy, though, would agree that the pop-ular view is highly exaggerated...

...On top of that, the Administration needs efficient people to provide facts and figures and arguments to meet the judicial and political challenges to its deregulatory and anti-redistributive initiatives...