It’s astounding that government reform is not much of an issue in today’s politics.
If Republicans really cared about bloated government, they would hit the issue hard. If Democrats really cared about the capacity of an activist government to deliver services competently, they would make it a top priority as well. But as Congress pours trillions of new dollars into federal and state bureaucracies, we should ask: Will the money be well spent?
Recent events offer little hope.
Here’s one example: Hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked last year for pandemic rent assistance did not timely make it out of the door, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and the Associated Press. Bureaucracies couldn’t handle the task. A project manager at Princeton’s Eviction Lab called the situation “mind-boggling.”
More outrageous is the story that $400 billion in unemployment benefits were stolen, some by street gangs and international crime syndicates. If this was a movie script, audiences would have trouble believing the story was even possible. Federal, state, and local governments spend billions every year. Your money often goes into broken bureaucracies.
Talk to anybody who has run a government department and they’ll tell you that the civil service system is the biggest obstacle to efficient management.
Civil service started as “good government” reform in 1883, with the passage of the Pendleton Act. Since then, it has become an impediment to efficient, nimble government. Waste and paralysis are institutionalized within the resin of its complicated rules. Red tape causes excessive delays, and senseless regulations undermine management flexibility. While private-sector managers can respond to changing realities, managers of public agencies cannot.
The core concept of civil service was and remains a good one. That’s the merit system of hiring, in which potential employees compete in a testing process open to all applicants. Taxpayers do not want unqualified people to get government jobs as political favors.
But while the aging heart of the merit system still beats, it has become diseased. “The framework of merit has corroded beyond recognition in many agencies,” says Philip Howard, author of The Death of Common Sense and leader of a national reform group that I advise.
Howard says that “In many agencies, public service is a brackish backwater, without pride or purpose. Potential recruits are repelled by the public work culture of agencies where responsibility involves mindless compliance, and the honor of public accomplishment is replaced by a preoccupation with personal entitlements.”
The best way to repair any bureaucracy is to streamline structure, improve performance and cut unnecessary costs. Unfortunately, civil service makes that nearly impossible.
The system is also unfair to government employees. It traps them in a Rube Goldberg-type apparatus that does not properly recognize or reward exemplary performance. It often treats slackers the same as stars. Government managers will tell you that a small portion of their employees carries the entire load. Morale is damaged, and undue burdens are placed on the most productive public servants.
What can be done?
For starters, simplify and modernize employee job and pay classifications. Public administrators need more management flexibility. And they need to be held strictly accountable.
One idea is to engage a volunteer corps of retired management professionals from the private and public sectors (without conflicts of interest) to evaluate each part of government independently and to make recommendations for reform. Then, give the executive branch the ability to implement these changes without needless barriers.
The elimination of agencies, programs, and positions should be based on sound management principles and reorganization plans, not rash budget-cutting. New hires should be recruited on merit and reflect each agency’s changing needs.
Of course, defenders of the status quo will tell you that none of this can be done. They will have a million reasons. But they will be wrong. It can be done. Moreover, it must be done.
Overhauling the civil service system won’t, by itself, drain the unfathomable swamp of government bureaucracy. But it will make doing so possible.
Ron Faucheux is a nonpartisan political analyst, pollster, and publisher of LunchtimePolitics.com, a newsletter on polls.
