Decentralized responsibility will delay, diffuse, and discourage accountability. Attempts to promote cultural commitment will result in groupthink and chauvinism. It is just a way of institutionalizing behavior. It can only deliver limited benefits. But burn-out from frenetic entrepreneurialism can be just as debilitating as the repression from ritualized rules.
Every new approach has a dark side as well as a bright side.
Proposals With Promise Seidle's monogram is less pretentious and more practical than Osborne and Plastrik's tome. He also cites case studies, but not the same ones chapter after chapter, conversation after conversation. Rather than advocating the wholesale make-over of government, Seidle focuses his diagnosis on a priority concern, direct delivery of services, and prescribes a manageable solution, performance measurement and improvement. And since these type of books will be read primarily by policy analysts, Seidle offers far more leads to other relevant sources for purposes of follow-up. From an analysis of his interview data, Seidle has synthesized performance criteria for better delivery of public services.