Over the past decade. Much has been written about the results of reinventing government. Most research has examined the effects of executive or managerial perspectives. Using David Rosenbioom’s competing perspectives model, we examine Medicaid managed care programs for children with special health care needs to illustrate the influence of legislative and judicial institutional perspectives on the reinvention movement. Legislative and judicial responses to the reinvention of Medicaid managed care reveal the outer limits of what managed care and related executive reforms can accomplish a Constitutional system that is based on checks and balances among competing institutional perspectives. Furthermore, relative to Medicaid managed care, legislative and judicial responses conserve public responsibility to society’s most vulnerable populations. In the long run, the balance of institutional perspectives and values – not managerial innovation per se – will influence public administration