Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Reforming the Bureaucracy

There have been various efforts to reform the bureaucracy in order to make it more efficient and less costly. These efforts include:
- Sunshine laws
     laws designed to create transparency within the agency
     Freedom if Information Act of 1966; Government in the Sunshine Act of 1976

- Sunset laws
    laws designed to review a program regularly for possible reforms and/or termination
    never adopted nationally but adopted in many states

- Privatization
    replacing government agencies/employees with that of private firms
    contracting out various government duties; offering vouchers instead of services

- Offering incentives for productivity and/or efficiency
    performance-based budgeting practices; requiring justification for programs
    e-government options
    Government Performance and Results Act of 1997

- Protecting whistleblowers
    establishing safe-guards for those who expose agency inefficiency or corruption
    Civil Service Reform Act of 1978; Whistle-Blower Protection Act of 1989
    Garcetti v Ceballos


Discussions on various problems with and solutions to traditional bureaucracies