ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the dialogue between the President and the bureaucrats as they discuss whether or not government is working. It examines the bureaucrats' response to the President's proposal for reorganization. The chapter also describes how the dialogue of reorganization is transferred to the Congress, where it is terminated. It identifies the implications which arise from the dialogue of reorganization. The bureaucrats responded to President Carter's initiative with skepticism. They did not share his interpretation of the problem of government. Overall, the bureaucrats respond that they do not need a Senior Executive Service (SES) to perform their jobs. In the case of the SES, the reorganizers claimed to attack the isolated nature of the bureaucracy per se. A majority of the respondents supplemented the basic questionnaire with highly revealing personal comments concerning the SES and civil service reform in general.
