REINVENTING

GOVERNMENT BY
OSBORNE AND TED
GAEBLER
Pol 104(2)
(mmh3)

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● What governments do?
● What are the citizens’ expectation from a government?
● Who are the actors who run the government?
● Are there any instances that you think that government should
have intervened strongly?
● Are there avenues where you think, the government should do
more to bring efficiency and effectiveness?
● Now what is the point that makes the situation to think about
“Reinventing Government?”

CONCEPTIONS ON GOVERNMENT

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● Civilized society cannot function without government- in fact there is no ultimate
substitute to government- we need government to regulate and to protect the
citizens
● Government is the mechanism to make deliver all the goods and services to make
our life possible
● Government needs to be good , effective for the benefit and wellbeing of the
people
● The people who work in the government may not be the problem but the system
they work could be the real problem

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● For the question of equity, equality of opportunity, rule of law, impersonal
treatment of all its citizens- the presence of a government is a must
● The book ‘Reinventing Government’ claims that it is for those who care for
government, for being effective

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● Time Magazine in 1980 asked on its cover “Is Government Dead?” As the 1990s unfold,
the answer to many Americans appeared to be yes.
● Confidence in government had fallen
● Public schools were the worst in the developed world
● Prisons and courts were overcrowded and the government had multi-billion dollar
deficits
● It was written prior to the closing of the millennium when changes were taking place
every where, the Eastern Europe became free, Soviet empire was dissolving and the cold
war was over. Western Europe was heading to form European Union. Democratization
was taking place from Europe to South Africa. It was a time when new model of
governance was emerging across America

THE CONTEXT OF THE BOOK

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● The term entrepreneur is far broader.
● The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and
into an area of higher productivity and greater yield
● An entrepreneur uses resources in new way to maximize productivity
and effectiveness
● Resources are used in new ways to maximize productivity and
effectiveness

CAN GOVERNMENT’S BECOME AN

ENTREPRENEUR?

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● Careful studies suggest that entrepreneurs do not seek risks, they seek
opportunities. Peter Drucker assures that almost anyone can be an
entrepreneur if the organization is structured to encourage entrepreneurship.

ARE ENTREPRENEURS RISK-TAKERS?

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 1.A catalytic Government- steering rather than rowing

2.Community –Owned Government - Empowering rather than serving

3.Competitive Government -Injecting Competition into Service Delivery

4.Mission-Driven Government - Transforming Rule Driven Organizations

5.Results-Oriented Government -Funding Outcomes, Not Inputs

6.Customer-Driven Government -Meeting the needs of the Customer, not

the Bureaucracy

REINVENTING GOVERNMENT ideas

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8.Enterprising Government -earning rather than spending

9.Anticipatory Government -prevention rather than cure

10.Decentralized Government -from hierarchy to participation and teamwork

11.Market-oriented government-leveraging change through the market

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 CATALYTIC GOVERNMENT- STEERING RATHER THAN
ROWING

● The word government is from Greek word, which means to ‘steer’. The job of the
government is to steer, not to row the boat. Delivering services is rowing, and
government is not very good at rowing.
● Catalyzing solutions outside the public sector – to allow the government to do
more but spent less
● The Government role as a catalyst and facilitator
● Government role was one dimensional- to collect taxes and deliver services-
learn how to facilitate problem solving by catalyzing how to steer rather than
rowing
● Engage in creative leveraging from third parties - which means pulling resources
to solve problems such as housing, road construction etc raising resources and
set societal priorities
● More steering to make policy decisions to shape communities, put more social
and economic institutions into motion
● When pre-occupied with service delivery, governments overlook this steering
function
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● Pulling ownership out of the bureaucracy, in to the community
● Communities have more commitment to their members than service delivery systems
have to their clients
● Communities understand their problems better than service professionals
● Professionals and bureaucracies deliver services, communities solve problems
● Institutions and professionals offer ‘service’; communities offer ‘care’,
● Communities are more flexible and creative than large service bureaucracies
● Communities are cheaper than service professionals
● Communities enforce standards of behavior more effectively than bureaucracies or
service professionals
● Communities focus on capacities, service systems on deficiencies

COMMUNITY OWNED GOVERNMENT-

EMPOWERING RATHER THAN SERVING
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● The issue is not public versus private. It is competition versus monopoly
● It will promote efficiency
● Competition rewards innovation, monopoly stifles it

● Public versus private competition

● Private versus private competition-private firms compete for public service
● Public versus public competition- competition in public schools or universities

COMPETITIVE GOVERNMENT:
INJECTING COMPETITION INTO
SERVICE DELIVERY
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 MISSION DRIVEN GOVERNMENT: TRANSFORMING RULE
DRIVEN GOVERNMENT
● Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what you want
them to achieve and they will surprise you with their ingenuity
● Mission driven organizations are more efficient than rule-
driven organizations
● Mission driven organizations are more effective than rule
driven organizations
● Mission driven organizations are more innovative than rule
driven organizations

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● Introduce performance measurement
● Paying for performance
● Managing for performance

RESULTS-ORIENTED GOVERNMENT:
FUNDING OUTCOMES, NOT INPUTS
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● Quality is determined by customers
● Getting close to the customer
● Putting customers in the driver’s seat
● Customer driven systems force service providers to be
accountable to their customers, stimulate more
innovation, give people choices between different kinds of
services

CUSTOMER-DRIVEN GOVERNMENT:
MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE
CUSTOMER
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● Turning the profit motive to public use
● Raising money by charging fees
● Turning managers into entrepreneurs

ENTERPRISING GOVERNMENT-
EARNING RATHER THAN SPENDING
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● Traditional bureaucratic organizations focus on
supplying services to combat problems
● They fund health to deal with illness, to combat
fires, they buy more fire trucks
● Instead of reduction in crime, fire prevention,
environmental protection

ANTICIPATORY GOVERNMENT:
PREVENTION RATHER THAN CURE
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● Decentralization public organizations through
participatory management
● Investing in the employee
● Decentralizing the central system

DECENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT: FROM

HIERARCHY TO PARTICIPATION AND
TEAMWORK
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● Applying market oriented thinking to governments
● Market based regulatory policy
● Balancing markets and community

MARKET-ORIENTED GOVERNMENT

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Questions:

● How these ideas can be put to practice?

● Does a government require continuous
reinventing ?
● How a government can monitor results?

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