policy-makers may need to unbundle these broad, sweeping reform agendas and examine
their constituent parts more critically.
For present purposes, we believe that management capacity is an important
variable that affects implementation of performance budgeting in the states. To test this
proposition, we tap a robust measure of the management capacity construct that has been
developed by the Government Performance Project (GPP), a joint effort by Syracuse
University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the Pew Charitable
Trusts. The GPP is a long-term project that periodically assigns letter grades to the states
on their management capacity. In 2000, grades were assigned on five management
subsystems: financial management, human resource management, information
technology, capital management, and managing for results (GPP, 2001). The grades for
each subsystem were based on a criteria-based assessment scheme developed by subject
matter experts that included both scholars and practitioners (Ingraham & Donahue, 2000;
Ingraham & Kneedler, 2000). These subsystem grades were then combined to provide an
overall measure of state management capacity.
The GPP grading scheme thus reflects
the multi-faceted nature of public management capacity, and it enables systematic inquiry
into the effects of public management across the fifty state governments (Brudney,
O'Toole & Rainey 2000; Coggburn & Schneider, 2003).
We also believe that organizational capacity is important. We assume that the
executive budget office plays a core implementation role by formulating guidelines, and
possibly even participating in the collection, reporting, and review of performance
10
Following Coggburn and Schneider (2003), we transformed the GPP’s letter grades into number grades for each of
the five subsystems and calculated the total score of the five subsystems as the overall management capacity grade used
in our analysis. The detailed letter-grade point-conversion scheme is shown in the exhibit.
11
The GPP methodology and grading scheme have been criticized, but we believe they provide the most valid, reliable,
and sensitive set of measures of state management capacity available today.
17
Convention