In 1992, David Osborne and Ted Gaebler published Reinventing Government, putting forward 10 principles through which “public entrepreneurs” might bring about massive governmental reform. The book captured the imagination of thousands of public managers and was widely discussed, debated, and even implemented. What we term the “reinvention movement” has been analyzed from a number of different perspectives. However, few of these articles have explored the underlying theoretical basis of the movement and its implications for broader issues of democratic governance. For the most part, past critiques have confronted the reinvention movement on its own terms, that is, with an interest in the practical implications of the movement for the operations of government, particularly at the federal level, where it has been given a presidential blessing. Though we draw on these works, our task is slightly different–to inquire into the implications of the reinvention movement for democratic governance, broadly defined.
