The Future of Merit: Twenty Years After the Civil Service Reform Act

by Pfiffner, James P.; Brook, Douglas A.

• ISBN13: 9780801864650
• ISBN10: 0801864658
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-12
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

"Passage of the Civil Service Reform Act was controversial, and there is still controversy over its effectiveness. A book of this sort will be well received and anxiously read by specialists in public administration, public policy, and public personnel administration."-H. George Frederickson, University of Kansas The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 was the most far reaching reform of the federal government personnel system since the merit system was created in 1883. The Future of Merit reviews the aims and rates the accomplishments of the 1978 law and assesses the status of the civil service. How has it held up in the light of the National Performance Review? What will become of it in a globalizing international system or in a government that regards people as customers rather than citizens? Contributors examine the Senior Executive Service, whose members serve between presidential appointees and the rest of the civil service. These crucial executives must transform legislative and administrative goals into administrative reality, but are often caught between opposing pressures for change and continuity. In the concluding chapter Hugh Heclo, many of whose ideas informed the 1978 reform act, argues that the system today is often more responsive to the ambitions of political appointees and the presidents they serve than to the longer term needs of the polity. On the other hand, the ambition of creating a government-wide cadre of career general managers with highly developed leadership skills has not been fulfilled. Other contributors helped to frame the 1978 act, helped to implement it, or study it as scholars of public administration: Dwight Ink, Carolyn Ban, Joel D. Aberbach, Bert A. Rockman, Patricia W. Ingraham, Donald P. Moynihan, Hal G. Rainey, Ed Kellough, Barbara S. Romzek, Mark W. Huddleston, Chester A. Newland, and Hugh Heclo. Six former directors of the Office of Personnel Management commented on early versions of these chapters at a 1998 conference.

Author Biography

James P. Pfiffner is professor of government and public policy at George Mason University. Douglas A. Brook is vice president--government affairs for the LTV corporation and former acting director of the Office of Personnel Management.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Michael J. Lacey
Preface	xi
Introduction Merit and the Civil Service Reform Act	1	(14)
Douglas A. Brook
PART ONE THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE CIVIL SERVICE
Government Legitimacy and the Role of the Civil Service	15	(24)
James P. Pfiffner
What Was behind the 1978 Civil Service Reform?	39	(18)
Dwight Ink
The National Performance Review as Implicit Evaluation of CSRA: Building on or Overturning the Legacy?	57	(24)
Carolyn Ban
Senior Executives in a Changing Political Environment	81	(22)
Joel D. Aberbach
Bert A. Rockman
PART TWO PERFORMANCE, INCENTIVES, AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Evolving Dimensions of Performance from the CSRA Onward	103	(24)
Patricia W. Ingraham
Donald P. Moynihan
Civil Service Reform and Incentives in the Public Service	127	(19)
Hal G. Rainey
J. Edward Kellough
Accountability Implications of Civil Service Reform	146	(31)
Barbara S. Romzek
PART THREE THE FUTURE OF MERIT
Onto the Darkling Plain: Globalization and the American Public Service in the Twenty-first Century	177	(23)
Mark W. Huddleston
Politics of Transition from the Administrative to the Facilitative State	200	(26)
Chester A. Newland
The Future of Merit	226	(13)
Hugh Heclo
Select Bibliography	239	(14)
Contributors	253	(6)
Index	259