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- CLINTON'S PEOPLE, Page 50A Prophet of Innovation
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- Author DAVID OSBORNE tells how to reinvent government and
- fight bureaucratic bloat
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- By DAN GOODGAME/WASHINGTON
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- These days, when political influence is measured in
- minutes of face time with Bill Clinton, rival job seekers
- jealously track the comings and goings at the Governor's
- mansion in Little Rock. More than a few of them took note when,
- amid the procession of Senators and big campaign contributors,
- a shy, intense, bespectacled man with an unfamiliar face met for
- nearly an hour one-on-one with the President-elect.
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- The mystery guest was David Osborne, 41, a public policy
- consultant and author who shares Clinton's passion for such
- nuts-and-bolts issues as bank lending to inner-city residents
- and privatized pothole repair. The two met in 1985, when
- Osborne interviewed Clinton for his first book, Laboratories of
- Democracy, which was published in 1988 and included an admiring
- chapter on Clinton's education reforms in Arkansas. Since then,
- Clinton has promoted Osborne's writings to fellow Governors.
- Osborne's ideas have been praised -- and implemented -- by
- politicians ranging from Republican Governor William Weld of
- Massachusetts to Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles of Florida.
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- While researching his latest book, Reinventing Government,
- Osborne spoke regularly with Clinton, who began using his ideas
- and examples on the campaign trail. Co-authored by Ted Gaebler,
- a consultant and former city manager, the book has sold 70,000
- copies since its publication last February and has had a
- profound influence on policymakers around the country. "This
- book should be read by every elected official in America,"
- Clinton gushed for a blurb on the dust jacket. "Those of us who
- want to revitalize government in the 1990s are going to have to
- reinvent it. This book gives us the blueprint."
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- Osborne and Gaebler show how state and local governments
- are dismantling bloated, rule-bound bureaucracies by injecting
- competition and market incentives. Using hundreds of case
- studies, the authors have distilled principles of
- "entrepreneurial government" that Clinton says he intends to
- apply in Washington. They include:
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- Steering rather than rowing.
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- Innovative Governors and mayors have learned, Osborne says,
- that just because the private sector is not providing a needed
- service, government does not have to "create a bu reaucracy to
- do the job all by itself." Some governments hire private
- contractors to run prisons or sweep streets. Others act as
- catalysts -- bringing community leaders together with charitable
- foundations, for example, to build low-income housing.
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- Empowering rather than serving.
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- The underprivileged should be encouraged to help themselves
- through their own communities, Osborne argues, citing cities
- that have increased effectiveness and cut costs through
- community-based policing and tenant-managed public housing.
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- Injecting competition into public services.
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- While some cities and states have successfully privatized
- such functions as landscaping and data processing, Osborne
- emphasizes that "the important distinction is not public vs.
- private, it is monopoly vs. competition." Phoenix, Arizona, for
- instance, allowed private contractors to bid against city
- garbage-collection crews and spurred both to become more
- efficient.
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- Rewarding success, not failure.
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- Most of the federal money spent for welfare, food stamps,
- Medicaid and public housing "rewards failure because it only
- goes to those who remain poor," Osborne says. Clinton has
- addressed this problem with his vows to end "welfare as we know
- it" and replace "a handout" with "a hand up."
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- Emphasizing prevention rather than cure.
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- New Governors in California, Florida and Illinois have
- emphasized the prevention of social and environmental problems.
- Studies show, for example, that modest investments in prenatal
- care and prevention of drug abuse among pregnant women can save
- millions of dollars in hospital treatment for crack babies and
- other unhealthy infants.
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- A self-described "child of the '60s," Osborne graduated
- from Stanford and began writing about public policy as "my way
- to change the world." As a journalist covering California's 1978
- tax revolt, however, he began to question liberal orthodoxy. "It
- seemed to me that I was watching a watershed event -- the end
- of the era of ever growing government spending that had begun
- with Franklin Roosevelt," he recalls. "I felt that progressives
- needed to take the lead in reforming taxes and making government
- more responsive."
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- Osborne, who lives in Essex, Massachusetts, with his wife
- and four children, may soon get a chance to put some of his
- ideas into practice: several Clinton aides believe the
- President-elect will offer Osborne a White House job or the
- chair of a commission to "reinvent" the federal bu reaucracy.
- Economic adviser Robert Reich cautions that some of Osborne's
- ideas "probably can't be implemented," but adds that "David
- thinks about government in fresh ways. He constantly asks how
- the public, as consumers of government services, can get the
- most for its money." Bruce Reed, another adviser to Clinton,
- notes that Osborne is "a good friend for Clinton to have
- because he doesn't hesitate to speak hard truths or to take on
- powerful interests."
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- For now, Osborne refuses to talk about a job offer that he
- says hasn't been made. But whatever happens, Clinton aides say,
- he and his ideas will be as welcome in the White House as they
- have been in the Arkansas Governor's mansion.
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