ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with explaining the criteria for good policy-making and the variety of policy support mechanisms, and proceeds to outline the principles for organizing the work of government. Policy coordination can never be perfect, and coordination problems affect to some extent every government. The organizational structure of the federal government reflects the genesis of American independence and the particularities of the U. S. Constitution – especially the "power of the purse" given to Congress and the articulation of responsibilities between the central government and the states. From independence in 1971 to the mid-1990s, the government of Bangladesh more than doubled the number of central government bodies. But the growth of government has often been stimulated by partisan political considerations rather than by an expanded role of the state. The organizational architecture of any government should be reviewed occasionally, because problems disappear and new ones emerge, situations change, priorities change – and government agencies consequently acquire or lose importance.
