Evidence-Based Solutions for Improving Federal Government Performance

Join us for a full day of presentations and small group discussion around improving federal government performance. Lunch and refreshments included. Limited to the first 80 RSVPs. Registration is free.

Agenda:

9:00 a.m. Welcome

9:15 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Programming

5:00 - 6:00 p.m. Reception (Optional)

Background:

The performance of the US federal government has been an object of attention for the last five decades. Concerns about federal government performance span the political spectrum. President Jimmy Carter brought government performance to center stage during his advocacy of legislative proposals that became the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. He promised a government “as competent, as compassionate, as good” as the American people. Paul Light’s subsequent tracking of government’s achievements showed high achievement during the half century following World War II, suggesting that government was delivering on Carter’s aspirations. Ronald Reagan, who defeated Carter in the 1980 election, popularized an alternative view, articulated in his 1981 inaugural address: “Government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem.”

The difference between the latter half of the 20th century and present day American public life is that government performance has moved from an “object of attention” on a list of public problems to “a key political issue.” Among the reasons behind this shift are many documented failures of government between 2001 and 2015. James Sherk, echoing arguments from Carter’s rhetoric of the late 1970s, recently observed that poor performance by employees in policy influencing positions was impairing the effectiveness of entire agencies, undermining policy initiatives the American people had voted for.

The proposed conference will bring scholars and practitioners together from across the political spectrum to address key perspectives regarding federal government performance that will influence policy making in the aftermath of the 2024 US presidential election. Two questions are central to the conference: When and why does government succeed or fail? What can be done to improve federal government performance?

Titled “Evidence-Based Solutions for Improving Federal Government Performance,” the conference will begin with a keynote by Paul Light, Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service at New York University. His remarks will be based on his decades-long research about causes of government successes and failures. Several experts will respond to Professor Light’s keynote by answering the question: What can be done to improve federal government performance? Following the presentations, conference participants will deliberate in small groups about reforms, seeking to identify prospects that simultaneously are supported by evidence and promise demonstrable benefits.

The collaborating organizations will prepare a post-conference report that highlights reforms discussed at the conference, evidence that informs answers to the focal questions, similarities and differences in the views of conference participants, and potential next steps for evidence-based practice and scholarship.