ment off our backs" was no last-minute opportunistic gambit on his part. As early as 1976 he had said, "The best thing government can do is nothing" (Kelman 1982, 17). And while Reagan's interests were largely in the area of "regulatory relief," he made great electoral strides by attacking the bureaucracy in general, which enabled him to turn his sights to a social agenda.
|
Negative consequences of bureaucrat bashing soon followed Reagan's election and proved to be self-defeating for the health of the federal bureaucracy. According to some, many agencies lost their best people while the dead weight stayed; the sense of mission, so vital to public service, was damaged. Performance declined, and demoralization set in, thanks to RIFs, pay increases of less than half the rate of inflation, and static ceilings on the salaries of top careerists (ibid.). OPM chief Don Devine's personnel philosophy that "the public deserved a competent, but not necessarily stellar, federal workforce angered many employee organizations."
2
|
Bureaucrat bashing only defeats the purpose of having a public service. Indeed, bureaucrat bashing brings its own punishment.
|
 | | The unavoidable conclusion, in sum, is that Reaganism's onslaught against the bureaucracy can only hinder any effort to eliminate the waste, fraud, and abuse that constitute the most wide-spread beef against "big government." The attack is likely to nurture indolence and incompetence by decreasing the proportion of able, eager people in career civil service positions, and by undercutting the ability of government agencies to instill the requisite sense of mission. (Ibid., 17)
|
Added to bureaucrat bashing is what might be termed government bashing and a generalized negative image of public service and its servants. Candidates Carter and Reagan both played to this image to advance their campaigns, though the latter significantly more than the former. "This phenomenon has several explanations, the most obvious being the general antipathy of Americans since colonial days toward 'big government' and 'bureaucrats.' To many citizens, 'big government,' 'fraud, waste, and abuse,' 'bureaucracy,' and 'bureaucrats' are terms synonymous with a system of governmentand of government spendinggone out of control" (Levine 1986, 202).
|
Another factor contributing to poor morale among government workers in the domestic agencies was the all-out attack on most agencies' missions or on the agencies themselves by Reagan and his appointees.
|
| | Particularly since 1981, budgetary cutbacks, program terminations, and a
|
|
