Reinventing government in the American states: Measuring and explaining administrative reform

This study examines whether reinventing government is the state reform wave of the 1990s. Using a mailed survey of more than 1200 agency heads, who re present 93 types of agencies across all 50 states, it examines the extent t o which agencies have implemented II reinvention reforms Although some prop osals are more widely adopted than others, correlation analysis indicates t hat state agencies consider the reinvention reforms as a package or program . A scale measuring the degree of "reinvention implementation" at the agenc y level is developed, and a general model consisting of five categories of explanatory variables is proposed and tested to account for variation in im plementation. Categories of independent variables include (1) state reform efforts, (2) agency type (3) agency characteristics, (4) influence of the e nvironment of the agency, and (5) agency director's background and attitude s. While the results indicate that agencies are selectively adopting specif ic reinvention reforms-most notably, strategic planning and some reforms ad dressing customer service-and that a few states are more active than others , the principal conclusion is that a concerted reinvention movement does no t appear to be underway across state governments.