Shaping Public Debate
Advocates of governmentwide performance planning suggest that the availability
of such plans will shape public opinion in a variety of ways. The pub-
20 Alasdair Roberts
lication of targets, it is suggested, will focus public opinion and encourage
consensus on social priorities. It might encourage tolerance of alternative
methods of delivering public services that, though unconventional in design,
are seen to be effective in ameliorating social problems. Confidence in government
might also be restored, as citizens see that government is attentive
to results and effective in dealing with problems. These are ambitious goals,
and it is unclear to what degree governmentwide performance planning can
contribute to their attainment.
The experience in some U.S. states is encouraging. Oregon Governor
Goldschmidt’s original initiative to craft a statewide strategic plan, and continuing
efforts by the Oregon Progress Board to define and track benchmarks
that relate to the goals included in that plan, are said to have had a
substantial impact on public opinion. Goldschmidt’s successor, Barbara
Roberts, found that the benchmarks helped moderate popular reaction to
spending cuts during a 1991–92 fiscal crisis (Peirce 1994). Roberts’ successor,
John Kitzhaber, repeated the planning exercise in 1996. Since 1990,many
county and local governments have undertaken similar benchmarking exercises
(Osborne and Plastrik 1997b). The most significant of these may be the
exercise undertaken in the Portland area. Local and regional governments
established a Portland-Multnomah County Progress Board, modeled on the
state board, and began a consultative exercise that resulted in the selection
of 85 benchmarks. A smaller number of “urgent benchmarks” are said to
have proved useful in guiding budget making by local authorities (Portland-
Multnomah Progress Board 1998).
Florida’s GAP Commission has had less resounding success but appears
to have built up significant public support.When legislators in the state’s
house of representatives threatened to stop funding the Commission in the
spring of 1998, many leading state newspapers editorialized in favor of the
Commission’s work. The benchmarks report, one said, “is extremely useful
to citizens and politicians” (Tampa Tribune 1998, 14).However, there did not
appear to be sufficient popular support to block the proposal.
Other experiences with performance-reporting exercises have not proved
so promising. In Canada, for example, observers have noted the lukewarm
response of legislators to the increased volume of performance information
now being produced by federal and provincial agencies. One commentator
suggests there is a “utilization gap”within the federal parliament: many legislators
do not evince an interest in performance plans and reports produced by
federal departments under the government’s Improved Reporting to Parliament
Project (Lindquist 1998). The same problem has been noted in a recent
report by Canada’s Auditor General (Auditor General of Canada 1997, Ch. 5).
Issues Associated with the Implementation of Performance Monitoring 21
There is evidence that this is a pattern common to many jurisdictions. A
recent study of legislative use of performance information in Australia, New
Zealand, and the United Kingdom found that the “greatest disappointment . . .
is the unwillingness or inability of Parliament to use better information when
it is provided” (Thomas 1996, 3). This may even be a difficulty in the United
States,notwithstanding its tradition of legislative independence and the strong
interest of some congressional committees in the implementation of the 1993
Government Performance and Results Act. In a 1997 study, the GAO found
that legislative staff members “questioned the validity and usefulness of outcome
data in decision making and perceived a potential for loss of needed
detail” (GAO 1997b, 15).
The reaction of legislators to the publication of performance information
is important because they play an important role as intermediaries in the communication
of government information to the broader public (MacRae 1985,
320–23). So, too,do journalists.But the media seems to share legislators’ indifference
to results-based reporting.“The introduction of performance reports
has been a journalistic nonevent in Ottawa,” says one observer:
There has been virtually no reporting on the initiative nor on the progress on
the results commitments identified in the reports . . . Journalists are cynical
about the information contained in the performance reports, seeing them as
communication documents that leave considerable “wiggle room” for governments.
(Lindquist 1998)
Another report suggests that the inattentiveness of legislators and journalists
represents the main barrier to achievement of a results-based management
culture in Canadian governments (English and Lindquist 1998).
To some extent, the muted enthusiasm of legislators toward performance
reporting is und