Remaking the Civil Service: Governance, Politics, and Performance

MLD 638M Subject & Catalog Number

Description

How do government jobs work? How should they work? This course focuses on those questions.

For generations, the basic structure of public employment in the United States attracted little attention. That has now changed. Debates rage over hiring, firing, unionization, and the balance between political control and nonpartisan administration.

This course examines how American governments structure and manage their workforces. We will study the emergence of the modern civil service, its constitutional constraints, and its effects on performance and accountability. Specific focus areas will include the relationship between political appointees and career officials; systems for hiring, promotion, and dismissal; salaries, performance pay, and pensions; and the role of public sector unions.

The course will emphasize the impact of workforce rules on state capacity: what government can actually get done and at what cost. Case studies will examine past efforts at reform and why they have failed more often than not.  While the primary focus is the United States, we will also establish a comparative global framework, and students will be encouraged to draw on knowledge and experiences from abroad.

This is a course about institutional design. At every stage, students will be asked how they would enable governments to attract the right candidates, get the best results, and satisfy the demands of American law and democracy.  As a final project, students will write and argue their own proposals for improving key aspects of government employment.

The instructor brings three decades of experience working on reform initiatives across all levels of American government.  He currently works with state government leaders on the issues at the center of the class.  The course is a collaborative effort to find solutions that can improve American governments today.