Topics for Discussion
1.In the 1990s in the United States，because of the poor fiscal and organizational performance，public confidence in government continued to decline.The newly elected President Clinton intended to make government reform a major thrust of his administration.Within ninety days of his inauguration，he announced a major initiative to“reinvent government”，to be led by the Vice President under the title National Performance Review(or NPR for short).On September 7，1993，the Clinton administration unveiled its report From Red Tape to Results:Creating a Government that Works Better and Costs Less，which spoke directly to the goals set by the administration for its reform effort.
In calling for a revolution in government the NPR was offering its own set of guiding principles，which were labeled as
●Cutting unnecessary spending and eliminating red tape
●Serving the public as customers
●Empowering employees by administrative deregulation
●Helping communities by removing mandates and giving flexibility(https://www.daowen.com)
●Fostering excellence with incentives and customer service measures.
Following the issuance of the report，the president issued a series of executive orders detailing the next steps in the reform process.A presidential memorandum entitled“Streamlining the Bureaucracy”was issued on September 11，1993，detailing requirements to cut the federal workforce by 12 percent.Another significant step involved labor relations.Executive Order 12871，issued on October 1，1993—created a national partnership council to join federal management and public unions in implementing NPR reforms.
Although the NPR continued its pursuit of some ambitious reform agendas under American political crossfire，the NPR or reinvention was attacked on both sides within public administration.On one side it was rejected by“traditionalists”，who said the principles of the NPR didn't fit the values of public administrations，or misdiagnosed the problem，or failed to deal adequately with the politics of public policy and public management.On the other side were the radicals，who said the NPR didn't go far enough and would fail to dramatically reengineer the core processes and structures of government.
The defeat of Vice President Gore in 2000 ended reinvention.One of the first steps taken by the new Bush Administration was an executive order rescinding labor-management partnership.But it should be said that reinvention was desperately in need of being reinvented.David Rosenbloom wrote in an editorial in Public Administration Review，on the themes of reform:“In their zeal to promote visions of the public interest，American administrative reformers sometime seek to remake the political system to serve the needs of better management rather than to develop better management to serve the purposes of the political system....This is an old lesson:If we want better government，we better talk politics.”[2]What lessons do you think we should learn from it?
2.Please read the following Supplementary Reading“Is the Public the Government's Customers?”and then discuss whether the public is the government's customers.
3.Consider your recent interaction with some of the government agencies.Do you think you are a must-be-served customer?How did the agency or the official treat you?Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with their treatment?