Does Frederick Taylor’s Ghost Still Haunt the Halls of Government? A Look at the Concept of Governmental Efficiency in Our Time

Since the Progressive Era, efficiency has been a cherished administrative value and a key concept in the study of public administration. Despite contemporary attention to other criteria, such as responsiveness and equity, efficiency remains a guiding governmental value and a focus of scholarly writing. Although efficiency is often considered an apolitical value, this article argues that public sector efficiency receives meaning through a political framework. The analysis explores changing definitions of transit efficiency to propose a revitalized, politically attuned concept.