This paper will discuss the current move to "reinvent government," focusing specifically upon the problem of accountability. The first part of the paper will briefly examine how the present situation of government ineffectiveness came about. The second part of the paper will discuss the reason for the development of large government bureaucracies in the first place. The third part of the paper will look at some of the proposed reforms. The fourth part of the paper will discuss some of the problems with these proposed reforms.
In the late 1970s, it became fashionable among members of a large group of people to declare that government had become too big since the 1930s and that it was high time to reduce the size and scope of government. This movement led, in part to the "tax revolt" of that decade, in which the populations of certain states forced their governments to reduce taxes, especially property taxes. "Small government" suddenly became a catch phrase, describing the kind of governments Americans wanted to "return to" after almost one hundred years of absence. Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 upon a campaign platform that promised to reduce the size of the government and, thereby, government waste. Federal funding of many welfare programs was slashed, but this was taken up by state and local governments. By the end of the 1980s, these state and local governments were teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and their citizens refused to submit any more resources in the form of taxes (Osborne & Gaebler, 1993, pp. 22-23).
Recently, many began arguing that the whole system of administrative government in the United States is obsolete. They argue that in a highly technological society, a new approach is needed. This approach urges an application of certain market principles to the process of governing, operating a government in a fashion similar to that of a private business. Osborne and Gaebler argue that their propo...