Updated ‘Winter Commission’ Report Examines Performance of State and Local Governments Across U.S. and Proposes Improvements

New Report Updates Original 1993 Study and Reviews Challenges Facing State and Local Governments in 21st Century

Albany, N.Y. — The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government is pleased to announce the availability of a special issue of Public Administration Review (PAR), updating the work of the National Commission on the State and Local Public Service — known as the Winter Commission — chaired by former Mississippi Governor William F. Winter.

The commission’s report in 1993 drew on the experience and ideas of 27 public officials, nonprofit leaders, journalists, and academicians. The new PAR special issue was edited by Rutgers University Professor Frank J. Thompson, who was the executive director of the Winter Commission. The special issue contains 15 chapters written by noted experts on American state and local government.

“Now, more than ever, we need a fresh look at enduring and new challenges that face state and local officials and new thinking on how best to meet them,” Winter said in the introduction to the PAR special issue.

Richard P. Nathan, co-director of the Rockefeller Institute, added, “The fiscal crisis calls for hard choices, requiring a high order of candor and creativity just to maintain the critical services state and local governments provide to citizens, much less add to them.”

An order form for the 200-page special issue of the Public Administration Review is available on the Rockefeller Institute Web site: www.rockinst.org

An overview of the chapters and authors is below:

Overview

• Introduction — William F. Winter
• State and Local Governance Fifteen Years Later: Enduring and New Challenges — Frank J. Thompson

The Quest for Executive Leadership

• Executive Orders and Administrative Control — Margaret R. Ferguson and Cynthia J. Bowling
• Continuity and Change in State Executive Leadership: Insights from the Perspectives of State Administrators — Brendan F. Burke, Chung-Lae Cho, and Deil S. Wright
• Strengthening Local Government Leadership and Performance: Reexamining and Updating the Winter Commission Goals — James H. Svara

The Quest for High-Performance Administration

• Personnel Reform in the States: A Look at Progress Fifteen Years after the Winter Commission — Lloyd G. Nigro and J. Edward Kellough
• State and Local Government Procurement and the Winter Commission — Matthew Potoski
• From Measurement to Management: Breaking through the Barriers to State and Local Performance — Mary Bryna Sanger
• The Evolution and Continuing Challenges of E-Governance — Sharon S. Dawes
• Electronic Funds and Benefits Transfers, E-Government, and the Winter Commission — Maureen A. Pirog and Craig L. Johnson
• State and Local Fiscal Sustainability: The Challenges — Jeffrey I. Chapman

The Quest for Public-Private Partnerships

• The Challenge of Strengthening Nonprofits and Civil Society — Steven Rathgeb Smith
• Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth: Challenges in Managing Philanthropic Support for Public Services — Charles Brecher and Oliver Wise

The Quest for High-Performance Federalism

• Learning from the States? Federalism and National Health Policy — Carol S. Weissert and Daniel Scheller
• Federalism Revised: Promise and Challenge of the No Child Left Behind Act — Kenneth K. Wong
• Mega-Disasters and Federalism — Marc Landy