ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the special problems of performance measurement under the conditions, together with their implications for system design. It reviews a number of challenges of program-performance measurement, particularly in large, diverse, and complex programmatic environments. Performance measurement is taking root across the entire spectrum of governments in the United States, and beyond. Much of the impetus for performance measurement has come from the federal level in the United States, most importantly from the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). Paradoxically, in striving for more rational decisions, the decision makers may come to rely upon systems which implicitly relax the critical assumptions of the rational-actor model. Thus finally the form of government is insignificant in both models; the analysis shows that it is associated with generating stakeholder support for performance measurement. The chapter examines the extent to which performance measurement has become integrated into contemporary local government management.
