ABSTRACT
In this article, I analyze the Bureau of Municipal Research’s concept of efficient citizenship as an alternative paradigm to customer-centered public administration. Reinventing government is a powerful buzz phrase these days both in the world of practical politics and academe. (The term emanates from Osborne and Gaebler [1992] and appears in the much-discussed National Performance Review report, From Red Tape to Results [Executive Office of the President, 1993], and in Gore [1994]). The aim is a political change to make government work better and cost less (Executive Office of the President, 1993). The strategy is “a new customer service contract” (Executive Office of the President, 1993; i) where administrators give taxpayers the same responsiveness and consideration businesses supposedly give customers.
