PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT AND THE PUBLIC ORGANIZATION |
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| Authors: | Thomas C. Dalton Linda C. Fitzpatrick |
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| Affiliation: | THOMAS C. DALTON recently completed his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and i s presently completing a book on The State Politics of Judiciul and Congressional Reform for Greenwood Press.;LINDA C. FlTZPATRlCK i s currently an Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis OblsPO, California. Her research interests include public participation in planning and the structure and politics of c i t y planning agencies. |
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| Abstract: | This article applies a broad theoretical framework identifying factors which provide an understanding of the relationship between electoral politics, organizational reform and institutional change. In focusing upon product i v i t y reforms undertaken in the 1970's and early 1980's. the authors find that political conflicts over measures of public performance may contribute to a life cycle in which organizational structures are reconstituted and subjects of regulation o r services redefined in ways that are potentially inconsistent with the demand for public accountability. The conjunction of such factors may contribute to a crisis of legitimacy resulting in the redefinition of the boundaries between public and private realms of responsibility, as expressed in the electoral process. Today liberal reformers are confronted by a dilemma of productivity and legitimacy involved in the cycle of reform and retrenchment in which the goal of public accountability is undermined by erosion of the rights of the subject. The attempt to break this bind requires, in part, an explicitness on the part of liberals about the presuppositions regarding the subject underpining the measures and strategies by which organizational reforms are undertaken. |
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