High-performance Government: Structure, Leadership, Incentives

Robert E. Klitgaard

Jan 2005 · Rand Corporation

About this ebook

In one of the most important critiques of U.S. government in more than a decade, the 2003 report of the Volcker Commission pulled no punches in describing an underperforming, dysfunctional U.S. government. The commission's report urged improvements in reorganization, leadership, and performance, but stopped short of specifying how to put its recommendations into practice.

In High-Performace Government: Structure, Leadership, Incentives experts from the RAND Corporation offer practical ways to reorganize and restructure, enhance leadership, and create flexible, performance-driven agencies. Edited by Robert Klitgaard, Dean and Ford Distinguished Professor of International Development and Security at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, and Paul C. Light, Founding Director of the Center for Public Service at the Brookings Institution and Senior Adviser to the Volcker Commission, this new book presents an innovative approach for rethinking government. This book looks at examples of successful reforms and examines what can be learned from them to improve the way our government works.

High-Performance Government includes an opening discussion by Robert Klitgaards, the full text of the Volcker Commission report, and a dozen chapters by senior RAND researchers. These chapters discuss how to confront the challenges posed by the changing role and increasing uncertainty of government; restructure under the constraints of structural politics; reorganize the national security apparatus; tailor public-private partnerships to particular needs; reform the system of presidential appointments; enhance leadership and incentives in the civil service; and much more.