INTRODUCTION How do you know what you have received for your money? The private sector has a general term to answer that question--widgets. What are widgets in the public sector? The public sector focuses on the financial resources used to produce our products and services rather than the products and services produced. Political processes determine input decisions and elaborate budgeting and financial management techniques are employed to ensure accountability. What about monitoring and consequences of our public programs, the products and services produced by our government agencies, and the day-to-day activities within our bureaucracies? To the extent that our government tracks the answers to these questions, we do so with performance measures. They are the widgets of the public sector. As Epstein (1988:3) points out, [T]he simplest way to think of this topic is by analogy to the private sector: performance measurement is government's way of determining whether [or not] it is providing a quality product at a reasonable cost. This article reviews the evolution of the governmental performance measure concept and comments on its contemporary development in four sections: history, state of the art, theoretical considerations, and conclusions. The history section traces the evolution of government performance measures. The section on the state of the art reviews current applications of performance measurement systems at the international, national, and state and local levels. The theoretical section discusses the change in conceptual assumptions concerning performance measurement. The last section suggests the implications of the current developments in this movement in terms of contemporary and future public administration. HISTORY: PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT Modern governmental performance measurement can be traced to the turn of the century progressive movement and the scientific management movement. The following section reviews the early beginnings of performance measurement from Frederick Taylor and the Bureau of Municipal Research through the modern work of the Urban Institute. Taylor and the Bureau of Municipal Research The father of scientific management, Frederick Taylor, rejected subjective means to define work and stressed the importance of objective measures in describing work. Taylor argued for the establishment of objective performance standards through rigorous systematic investigation. He is particularly known for his time and motion studies that closely examined how individuals accomplished their work. However, Taylor was not satisfied with merely describing work. A positivist in his epistemology, Taylor was interested in improving performance. Objective measures of work were means not ends because the descriptions were used to improve the production process. In other words, Taylor's goal was not only to describe work accurately but also to aid in the decision-making process (Fry, 1989). The New York Bureau of Municipal Research, a product of the turn of the century progressive political movement, largely created the study of public administration in the United States and brought Taylor's thinking into the public sector. The bureau argued for political reform to strengthen the government's executive branch by making it more professional, increasing its administrative powers relative to the legislative branch, and improving its capability for more sophisticated management. Influenced by Taylor, the bureau argued for rational, scientific management principles designed to improve community service. The civic-oriented approach of the bureau's municipal reformers is reflected in Burke's (1912:366) article on efficiency standards in municipal management: The primary purpose of a municipality is not to furnish occasional opportunities for casting ballots, revising charters, or recalling officials but to promote and protect the health, education, safety, convenience, and happiness of its citizens . …
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