Kettl, Donald F. 1952–

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Kettl, Donald F. 1952–

PERSONAL: Born February 9, 1952, in Philadelphia, PA; son of Raymond P. and Mary Louise (Donovan) Kettl; married Susan Carmela Amato. Education: Yale University, B.A., 1974, M.A. and M.Phil., 1976, Ph. D., 1978.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, 208 S. 37th St., Rm. 217, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6215. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Political scientist, educator, and writer. Yale University, New Haven, CT, lecturer in political science, 1976; Columbia University, New York, NY, assistant professor of political science, 1978–79; University of Virginia, Charlottesville, assistant professor, 1979–85, associate professor of government, 1985–89; Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, associate professor of political science, 1989–90; University of Wisconsin—Madison, professor of political science and with the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs, 1990–2004; Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, nonresident senior fellow, 1994–; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, professor of political science and Stanley I. Sheerr Endowed Term Chair in the Social Sciences, 2004–.

Has held numerous administrative and public service positions, including, Wisconsin Governor's Blue-Ribbon Commission on Campaign Finance Reform, chair, 1996–97; Meriter Health Services and Meriter Hospital Boards, Madison, WI, 1998–2001; Wisconsin Governor's Blue-Ribbon Commission on State-Local Partnerships for the 21st Century, 1999–2000; National Academy of Public Administration, Panel on Environmental Protection Agency: New Source Review, chair, 2001–02; U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Performance Measurement Advisory Committee, member, 2002–03; Project on Federalism and Homeland Security, Century Foundation, executive director, 2002–; Governor Performance Project, Pew Charitable Trusts, academic coordinator, 2003–. Has testified before the U.S. Congress.

MEMBER: American Political Science Association, American Society for Public Administration, Academy of Political Science, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: William Anderson Award, American Political Science Association, 1979, for best dissertation in American intergovernmental relations; Marshall E. Dimock Award, American Society for Public Administration, 1990, for best lead article in Public Administration Review; University of Wisconsin-Madison Mid-Career Award, 1998; Charles H. Levine Memorial Award, American Society for Public Administration, 1998, in recognition of contributions to research, teaching, and outreach; Louis Brownlow Book Award, National Academy of Public Administration, 2003, for The Transformation of Governance; National Academy of Public Administration fellow.

WRITINGS:

Managing Community Development in the New Federalism, Praeger (New York, NY), 1980.

The Regulation of American Federalism, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1983.

Leadership at the Fed, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1986.

Government by Proxy: Mis(?)Managing Federal Programs, Congressional Quarterly (Washington, DC), 1988.

Public Administration: Theory and Practice, Chatham House (Chatham, NJ), 1991.

(Editor, with Patricia W. Ingrahm) Issues for the American Public Service, Chatham House (Chatham, NJ), 1991.

(With James W. Fesler) The Politics of the Administrative Process, Chatham House (Chatham, NJ), 1991.

Deficit Politics: Public Budgeting in Its Institutional and Historical Context, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1992, reprinted as Deficit Politics: The Search for Balance in American Politics, foreword by Ross K. Baker Longman (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor, with Patricia W. Ingrahm) Agenda for Excellence: Public Service in America, 1992.

(With John J. DiIulio, Jr. and Gerald Garvey) Improving Government Performance: An Owner's Manual, Brookings Institution (Washington, DC), 1993.

Sharing Power: Public Governance and Private Markets, Brookings Institution (Washington, DC), 1993.

Reinventing Government?: Appraising the National Performance Review, Brookings Institution (Washington, DC), 1994.

(With John J. DiIulio, Jr.) Fine Print: The Contract with America, Devolution, and the Administrative Realities of American Federalism, Brookings Institution (Washington, DC), 1995.

(With John J. DiIulio, Jr.) Cutting Government, Brookings Institution (Washington, DC), 1995.

(Editor, with John J. DiIulio, Jr.) Inside the Reinvention Machine: Appraising Governmental Reform, Brookings Institution (Washington, DC), 1995.

(Editor, with H. Brinton Milward) The State of Public Management, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1996.

The Global Public Management Revolution: A Report on the Transformation of Governance, Brookings Institution (Washington, DC), 2000.

(Editor) Environmental Governance: A Report on the Next Generation of Environmental Policy, Brookings Institution (Washington, DC), 2002.

The Transformation of Governance: Public Administration for Twenty-First Century America, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 2002.

Team Bush: Leadership Lessons from the Bush White House, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 2003.

(Editor) The Department of Homeland Security's First Year: A Report Card, Century Foundation (New York, NY), 2004.

System under Stress: Homeland Security and American Politics, CQ Press (Washington, DC), 2004.

Contributor to books, including Civil Service Reform: Building a Government that Works, Brookings Institution (Washington, DC), 1996; and Wisconsin. Blue-Ribbon Commission on State-Local Partnerships for the 21st Century. Report, The Commission (Madison, WI), 2001. Contributor of articles to scholarly publications, including Renewable Resource Journal, Environmental Forum, Journal of Public Affairs Education, Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Member of editorial boards of scholarly publications, including International Public Management Journal, Administration and Society, Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, American Review of Public Administration, and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

WORK IN PROGRESS: The Next Government of the United States.

SIDELIGHTS: Donald F. Kettl is an expert in public policy and public administration and has written and edited numerous books pertaining to these areas, many in association with the Brookings Institution. In Leadership at the Fed, for example, the author examines the Federal Reserve. Writing in Business History Review, James Livingston noted that "the question Kettl raises is not whether an independent agency [a central bank] is compatible with American democracy, but whether capitalism is. That his book equips us to answer this question is one measure of its importance."

Kettl and coeditor Patricia W. Ingrahm present a collection of papers presenting a mostly favorable view of the federal government in the book Agenda for Excellence: Public Service in America. "These finely crafted, carefully researched, and well-reasoned essays examine the theory and practice of managing the federal executive work force," wrote Carol W. Lewis in the American Review of Public Administration. Lewis went on to note, "These studies challenge popular myths about frozen stability and excessive uniformity of the federal bureaucracy; in fact, they belie monolithic generalizations." Writing in Public Administration Review, Eugene B. McGregor, Jr., noted: "The collected essays remind us that the American public service is a dynamic institution that, contrary to some popular belief, resounds with examples of excellence."

Kettl collaborated with John J. DiIulio, Jr. and Gerald Garvey to write 1994's Improving Government Performance: An Owner's Manual. "For those who like things made simple, Improving Government Performance provides a brief overview of past and current efforts to reform the federal bureaucracy," wrote Gerald E. Caiden in Public Administration Review. In Sharing Power: Public Governance and Private Markets, solo author Kettl focuses on the relationship between public governments and private markets in relation to public services. "Through a description and analysis of five 'case studies,' Kettl identifies some of the fundamental forces in government and in the market that make the sharing of power complex and difficult," wrote Gerald W. Johnson in the American Political Science Review. Johnson went on to note: "At its core, this is a book about democratic theory—about what governments and markets can and cannot do." Timothy H. Riordan, writing in the Government Finance Review, commented: "The book does a good job of talking about the realities of managing in today's environment without dwelling on the platitudes of private-sector mythology."

Kettl and DiIulio, Jr. coedited Inside the Reinvention Machine: Appraising Governmental Reform, which presents a series of scholarly essays focusing on various government reform theories and actions. James D. Carroll, writing in the American Review of Public Administration, called the book "part of the historical record, as well as sources of insight into how reform has been defined and pursued in the 1990s." Kettl once again teamed with DiIulio, Jr. to write Fine Print: The Contract with America, Devolution, and the Administrative Realities of American Federalism. This time the authors examine the Republican drawn "Contract with America" of the mid-1990s. The "agreement" promised the American people that its elected Republican representatives in the federal government would work toward smaller federal government while placing increasing responsibility and authority on the state level. Writing in Public Manager: The New Bureaucrat, Hyong Yi pointed out that the authors "address the issue of how these promises will be implemented administratively."

The State of Public Management, which Kettl edited with H. Brinton Milward, contains essays from a conference on public management. Norman Gill, writing in Perspectives on Political Science, noted that the book "mark[s] important milestones in the new discipline of public management. They not only explore how public programs can be managed to work better, but they also chart the maturation of thinking about how it ought to be done."

In The Global Public Management Revolution: a Report on the Transformation of Governance, Kettl addresses the movement to make governments work better in terms of greater efficiency and performance coupled with lower costs. In the process, the author analyzes various localized movements, such as the "new public management" movement in Australia. Writing in the Review of Policy Research, Jeremy F. Plant commented, "Kettl has earned a reputation as one of the finest writers in public policy and administration. His work is characterized by clarity, precision in terms, and a remarkable economy of argument to convey his ideas. This book only reinforces his skills in condensing a great deal of information into its essentials."

Kettl turns his eye to the leadership style of President George W. Bush in Team Bush: Leadership Lessons from the Bush White House. Although Kettl describes a president of average intelligence, he goes on to relate how Bush has used his M.B.A. and his background in business to assemble an effective management team to help him make decisions. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that the book has "stimulating ideas" about leadership. In The Transformation of Governance: Public Administration for Twenty-First Century America, Kettl writes about how governance has changed in the United States. Writing in the Public Manager, A.C. Hyde noted that the "historical overview bridges past and present nicely in explaining what's different about governance now and why it's so significant for public administration." Kettl is also editor of a collection of papers titled Environmental Governance: A Report on the Next Generation of Environmental Policy. American Journal of Agricultural Economics contributor Darrell J. Bosch commented: "This book will be helpful, accessible reference for professional practitioners and citizens who are concerned with adapting environmental policymaking and management to meet future challenges.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, November, 2003, Darrell J. Bosch, review of Environmental Governance: A Report on the Next Generation of Environmental Policy, p. 1082.

American Political Science Review, June, 1994, Gerald W. Johnson, review of Sharing Power: Public Governance and Private Markets, p. 477.

American Review of Public Administration, December, 1993, Carol W. Lewis, review of Agenda for Excellence: Public Service in America, p. 422; December, 1998, James D. Carroll, review of Inside the Reinvention Machine: Appraising Governmental Reform, p. 402.

Business History Review, summer, 1988, James Livingston, review of Leadership at the Fed, p. 335.

Government Finance Review, February, 1995, Timothy H. Riordan, review of Sharing Power, p. 50.

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, July, 1997, Richard F. Callahan, review of The State of Public Management, p. 489.

Policy Studies Journal, winter, 2000, William B. Perkins, review of The Global Public Management Revolution: A Report on the Transformation of Governance, p. 879.

Prospectives in Political Science, spring, 1997, Norman Gill, review of The State of Public Management, p. 105.

Public Administration Review, March-April, 1994, Gerald E. Caiden, review of Improving Government Performance: An Owner's Manual, pp. 123-128; May-June, 1994, Eugene B. McGregor, Jr., review of Agenda for Excellence, pp. 296-301; May-June, 1998, Gary Marshall, review of The State of Public Management, p. 274.

Public Manager: the New Bureaucrat, spring, 1993, Gail Johnson, review of Agenda for Excellence, p. 63; fall, 2003, A.C. Hyde, review of The Transformation of Governance: Public Administration for the Twenty-First Century America, p. 64; summer, 1995, Hyong Yi, review of Fine Print: The Contract with America, Devolution, and the Administrative Realities of American Federalism, p. 54; winter, 1996, Barry E. Shapiro, review of Civil Service Reform: Building a Government that Works, p. 60.

Public Studies Journal, winter, 1997, Winfield Rose and Charles E. Menifield, review of Civil Service Reform, p. 651.

Publishers Weekly, February 24, 2003, review of Team Busy: Leadership Lessons from the Bush White House, p. 67.

Review of Policy Research, spring, 2002, Jeremy F. Plant, review of The Global Public Management Revolution, p. 238.

Washington Monthly, May, 1995, Timothy Noah, review of Inside the Reinvention Machine, p. 56.

Washington Post Book World, March 8, 1987, review of Leadership at the Fed, p. 6.