The Politics Measurement Makes: Performance Management in the Obama Era
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Donald Moynihan
President Obama assumed leadership of the state in an era of governance by performance management. While sometimes dismissed as a technocratic tool, performance management has profound implications for how the state is governed, impacting the distribution of administrative power, the capacity to exert control and accountability, and the means by which citizens experience their government. This article examines the transition of performance systems between the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, a transition marked by a mixture of continuity and change. Both presidents identified performance as the central organizing theme for their management initiatives. The enthusiastic adoption of performance techniques by any government results in a variety of responses, ranging through passive, political, perverse, and purposeful. Understanding why and when such responses occur, and their implications for politics and governance, should be a central aspect of the study of the permanent government.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Why Can't Americans See the State?
- The Winds of Congressional Change
- `Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare:' A Prescription that Progressives Should Fill
- The Case of the Missing Spymaster
- Bankruptcies, Bailouts and the Banking Bureaucracy: The Bush Agenda and the Capacity for Crisis
- Modern Presidents and the Transformation of the Federal Personnel System
- The Politics Measurement Makes: Performance Management in the Obama Era
- Overhead Agencies and Permanent Government: The Office of Management and Budget in the Obama Administration
- The Evolving American State: The Trust Challenge
- Politicians Do Pander: Mass Opinion, Polarization, and Law Making
- Review
- Review of The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform
- Review of No Middle Ground: How Informal Party Organizations Control Nominations and Polarize Legislatures
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Why Can't Americans See the State?
- The Winds of Congressional Change
- `Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare:' A Prescription that Progressives Should Fill
- The Case of the Missing Spymaster
- Bankruptcies, Bailouts and the Banking Bureaucracy: The Bush Agenda and the Capacity for Crisis
- Modern Presidents and the Transformation of the Federal Personnel System
- The Politics Measurement Makes: Performance Management in the Obama Era
- Overhead Agencies and Permanent Government: The Office of Management and Budget in the Obama Administration
- The Evolving American State: The Trust Challenge
- Politicians Do Pander: Mass Opinion, Polarization, and Law Making
- Review
- Review of The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform
- Review of No Middle Ground: How Informal Party Organizations Control Nominations and Polarize Legislatures
