Jerry Mitchell - The American Experiment with Government Corporations

Kenneth J. Meier
Series Editor

THE STATE OF PUBLIC BUREAUCRACY
Larry B. Hill, Editor

THE POLITICS OF DISSATISFACTION
Citizens, Services, and Urban Institutions
W. E. Lyons, David Lowery, and Ruth Hoogland DeHoog

THE DYNAMICS OF CONFLICT BETWEEN BUREAUCRATS AND LEGISLATORS
Cathy Marie Johnson

THE POLITICS OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS REGULATION
The States and the Divestiture of AT&TJeffrey E. Cohen

WOMEN AND MEN OF THE STATES
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ETHICS AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AT THE STATE LEVEL
Politics and Progress in Controlling Pollution
Evan J. Ringquist

THE POLITICS OF SIN
Drugs, Alcohol, and Public Policy
Kenneth J. Meier

ELECTORAL STRUCTURE AND URBAN POLICY
The Impact on Mexican American Communities
J. L. Polinard, Robert D. Wrinkle, Tomas Longoria, and Norman E. Binder

CONTROLLING THE BUREAUCRACY
Institutional Constraints in Theory and Practice
William F. West

ENFORCING THE LAW
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Susan Hunter and Richard W. Waterman

EXECUTIVE GOVERNANCE
Presidential Administrations and Policy Change in the Federal Bureaucracy
Cornell G. Hooton

THE PROMISE OF REPRESENTATIVE BUREAUCRACY
Diversity and Responsiveness in a Government Agency
Sally Coleman Selden

THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT WITH GOVERNMENT CORPORATIONS
Jerry Mitchell

The
American
Experiment
with
Government
Corporations

Jerry Mitchell

First published 1999

Published 2015 by Routledge

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mitchell, Jerry, 1956
The American experiment with government corporations / by Jerry Mitchell.
p. cm. (Bureaucracies, public administration, and public policy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7656-0361-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 0-7656-0362-4 (paper : alk. paper)
1. Corporations, GovernmentUnited States. 2. Corporations,
GovernmentUnited StatesManagement. 3. Government business
enterprisesUnited States. I. Title. II. Series.
HD3885.M55 1998
352.2660973DC21 98-17109
CIP

ISBN 13: 9780765603623 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 9780765603616 (hbk)

To Mary and My Parents

Tables

Illustrations

The M.E. Sharpe series in Bureaucracy, Public Policy, and Public Administration is designed as a forum for the best work on bureaucracy and its role in public policy and governance. Although the series is open within regard to approach, methods, and perspectives, especially sought are three types of research. First, the series hopes to attract empirical studies of bureaucracy. Public administration has long been viewed as a theoretical and methodological backwater of political science. This view persists despite a recent flurry of research. The series seeks to place public administration at the forefront of empirical analysis within political science. Second, the series is interested in conceptual work that attempts to clarify theoretical issues, set an agenda for research, or provide a focus for professional debates. Third, the series seeks manuscripts that challenge the conventional wisdom about how bureaucracies influence public policy or the role of public administration in governance.

I am very pleased to include in the M.E. Sharpe series Jerry Mitchells The American Experiment with Government Corporations. With the current pressures to downsize government and contract out to private firms, a book on government corporations is especially relevant. Governments have a variety of organizational instruments to use in implementing public policy. Between the polar types of government bureaucracy and private implementation rests a dizzying array of government corporations. Government corporations are hybrids, gaining some of the freedom from rules and regulation that the private sector enjoys but retaining some of the accountability and responsiveness of government agencies. Professor Mitchell demonstrates that the government corporation is not a single type of organization but rather a wide range of organizations, each designed in a somewhat unique manner to implement a specific program or set of programs.

Our knowledge of government corporations lags greatly behind our knowledge of other forms of organizations. Government corporations are invisible to many, and The American Experiment with Government Corporations fills a major gap in our knowledge. Government corporations, according to Professor Mitchell, bring both positive and negative things to the implementation of public policy. Some perform exceptionally well; others are clear failures. The structure itself does not guarantee either net benefits or net costs. Only a detailed look at individual cases can produce such a determination.

Professor Mitchell has produced a balanced assessment. He details not just the arguments for and against government corporations, but the counter-arguments to each and the weaknesses therein. He is not offering simplistic solutions to complex problems, but rather doing a careful, unbiased study of the use of government corporations. The government corporation is an experiment, Professor Mitchell contends, and it is an ongoing experiment that needs to be carefully designed and evaluated.

The American Experiment with Government Corporations is the definitive work on this topic. It belongs on the bookshelves of all students of administration, whether their interest is public administration or business administration. In an era when American politics seems to be devoted to the notion of more government services but fewer government bureaucrats, the government corporation will continue to flourish as an organizational form. With that decision, some clear risks to democracy and efficiency exist. Jerry Mitchell has detailed these risks and in the process has contributed to the design of better public policy. Students of government, bureaucracy, policy, and business can ignore this book only at great peril. I learned a great deal from reading this book; you will too.