1. What is implementation? Why is it important for public administration? What are potential standards for judging results?

2. Elliot Richardson, cabinet member in the Nixon administration wrote “all too often, new legislation merely publicizes a need without creating either the means or the resources for meeting it.” Discuss the inherent difficulties of this money problem as programs are set up for failure before they’ve even launched. What could Congress do in this situation?

3. What is federal administration through grant programs? What is federal administration through regulation? How does that approach increase the federal government’s power? What is federal administration through off-budget programs?

4. What is contracting out? Weigh the advantages and disadvantages of contracting out. Do you think that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? When would contracting out NOT be advantageous?

5. As the number of federal-state-local and private-public roles has increased in society, how has this change affected implementation? How does it affect program goals? How does it affect the collection of information regarding results?

6. Jeffery L. Pressman and Aaron B. Wildavsky’s 1973 book titled Implementation discussed how many government programs embark with expansive goals but in the end government is simply unable to administer the programs to meet programmatic goals. They attribute failure to a complexity in the implementation process where the greater the complexity the greater the failure as each strand in the “seamless web” depends on all of the others. What do you think of this idea? Do you agree with Pressman and Wildavsky? Can you give examples of government programs you’ve witnessed in which an increase in administrative complexity has led to a failure to reach goals? What do you think government should do to combat this phenomenon? Plan programs with objectives that are more tentative or implement their programs with bold objectives more effectively? Why?