on Facebook
on Twitter
on YouTube
Document Information
A Call to Revitalize the Engines of Government
As part of a broad loss of confidence in government dating back to the 1970s, federal officials have faced increasing pressure to reduce the size of the federal government and to privatize the provision of services traditionally provided by government. As a result, government agencies have come to rely extensively on contractors. This paper argues that such reliance has harmed the federal government's ability to carry out the nations' business in a variety of ways, the most important of which is that the interests of contractors are ultimately private gain and do not necessarily align with those of the government. Use of contractors increased under the administration of George W. Bush and may increase much more as large numbers of federal workers reach retirement age. Rostker maintains that, to provide appropriate oversight of contractors and ensure that inherently governmental work is done by federal civilian employees, the government must increase the size of its in-house workforce, eliminate “personnel ceilings” and other restrictions that arbitrarily limit the number of people that government agencies may employ, and reevaluate when it is and is not appropriate and cost-effective to use contractors to help carry out the business of government.
Free, downloadable PDF file(s) are available below.
RAND makes an electronic version of this document available for free as a public service.
Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or higher for the best experience.
The research described in this report was prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). The research was conducted in the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the OSD, the Joint Staff, the Unified Combatant Commands, the Department of the Navy, the Marine Corps, the defense agencies, and the defense Intelligence Community.
This product is part of the RAND Corporation occasional paper series. RAND occasional papers may include an informed perspective on a timely policy issue, a discussion of new research methodologies, essays, a paper presented at a conference, or a summary of work in progress. All RAND occasional papers undergo rigorous peer review to help ensure that they meet high standards for research quality and objectivity.
Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND Permissions page.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.
* RAND research is conducted across divisions, centers, and projects; these organizational components are represented in the "Related RAND Divisions" section above.
Top
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2010 RAND Corporation. Last Modified: August 06, 2009 