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According to A Government to Trust and Respect:
Rebuilding Citizen-Government Relations for the 21st Century,
improvements to this country's civic health will require a
dual effort-improving trust in public officials and enhancing
government performance. Although citizens and other institutions
must share responsibility in this effort, the report's recommendations
focus on what government can do to strengthen the bonds that
tie government to the people it serves. According to the panel,
government officials and public administrators have a duty
to encourage more active, better informed, and more trusting
citizens.
"A healthy American democracy demands
that we do what we can to reverse the distrust and cynicism
that has come to mark much of attitudes toward government,"
says Volcker, also an Academy Fellow. "This report focuses
on one essential part of that necessary effort--improving
the performance of government itself."
The panel, funded by a grant from The Pew
Charitable Trusts, sought to answer three challenging questions:
What is the current state of citizen-government relations?
What constitutes "good government?" How can we encourage
civic engagement? The diverse group of preeminent scholars,
opinion leaders, and practitioners that comprised the panel
agreed that "In America today, the relationship between
citizens and government is in disarray."
Academy President Scott Fosler called the
report "a ringing call for citizens and government officials
to take the tough but essential steps required to make American
democracy work." According to Fosler, "This panel
of distinguished Americans and Academy Fellows has laid out
a solid agenda of the hard and unglamorous work that needs
to be done to improve government performance and restore public
confidence in government."
The panel's thorough examination of contemporary
evidence and historic trends on the state of citizen-government
relations revealed a deep-set distrust of elected officials
and the campaign finance process, and highlighted the importance
of public perceptions about government performance. The panel's
prescription for reversing these trends is contained in 10
comprehensive recommendations that include cleaning up campaign
financing, encouraging more accurate media coverage, improving
ethics laws, focusing on results and improving accountability
within government agencies, and improving governments' communication
with the public.
The panel's recommendations, outlined below,
are intended to serve as a reference point for public officials
and as a catalyst to further the dialogue about the relationship
between American citizens and their government.
Improving Trust in Public Officials
1. To reduce the impact of large donations from special interests
and the wealthy, Congress should alter the current system
for financing political campaigns.
2. Recent citizen initiatives and media efforts to encourage
candidates for office to adhere to higher standards of honesty
and accuracy, focus more closely on issues, avoid negative
personal attacks on opponents, and eschew empty antigovernment
rhetoric are a positive development and should be expanded
and intensified.
3. Congress should rethink and redesign our current and often
counterproductive mechanism for enforcing ethics laws and
investigating the behavior of public officials.
4. The President and Congress should work together to improve
the quality of public officials by strengthening the appeal
of public service and making government more hospitable to
talented and creative Americans.
Enhancing Government Performance
5. Governments at all levels should explicitly adopt and aggressively
adhere to a concept of service and a culture of performance
and results.
6. Legislatures should require appropriate government agencies
to develop and implement performance management systems that
enable them to measure and publicize progress toward program
goals and to strengthen policy analysis.
7. Government agencies should make more strategic and consistent
efforts to engage citizens in dialogue, planning, and determining
accountability for programs and services. It should also publicize
successes more assertively.
8. Government agencies should accelerate the adoption of new
technologies to improve services, facilitate citizen access,
and measure and enhance customer satisfaction.
9. Governments at every level should continue to seek innovative
new approaches for improving performance and broadening citizen
input in public policymaking and implementation.
10. Appropriate organizations in the private and independent
sectors should collaborate responsibly with governments at
all levels in creating performance standards, assessing ongoing
government performance against these standards and indicators,
and publicizing their findings.
According to the report, these agenda items
can only be adequately addressed if citizens and government
start to agree on a measure of good government. The measure
of good government, the panel states, is not whether it does
all things well for all people, but whether it does-and does
well-those things that are the province of government, as
defined by legitimate and open processes of public dialogue
and debate.
Each of the panel's recommendations are
discussed in detail in the report and are backed up by an
appendix containing a rich body of evidence on the depth and
consistency of citizen dismay over the performance of government
leaders. The full report can be accessed at www.napawash.org/governmenttrust.
The National Academy of Public Administration
is an independent, nonprofit organization chartered by Congress
to improve governance at all levels-local, regional, state,
national, and international. The Academy's membership consists
of 480 Fellows with distinguished careers in public management
as practitioners, scholars, and civic leaders. Since its establishment
in 1967, the Academy has assisted hundreds of federal agencies,
congressional committees, state and local governments, civic
organizations, and institutions overseas.
The Pew Charitable Trusts support nonprofit
activities in the areas of culture, education, the environment,
health and human services, public policy and religion. Based
in Philadelphia, the Trusts make strategic investments to
help organizations and citizens develop practical solutions
to difficult problems. In 1998, with approximately $4.734
billion in assets, the Trusts granted more than $213 million
to 298 nonprofit organizations.
A Government to Trust and Respect: Rebuilding Citizen-Government
Relations for the 21st Century, Order # 99-6, is published
by the National Academy of Public Administration. Copies may
be purchased for $15.00 plus shipping by calling NAPA Publications
at 301-617-7801. The media may obtain complimentary copies
by contacting the Academy's Office of Communications.
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