A major shift has occurred in the operation of the public sector in the United States and other countries over the last five decades. At the heart of this change is the proliferation of new instruments, or tools, of public action — loans, loan guarantees, regulation, contracts, cooperative agreements, reimbursement schemes, tax subsidies, vouchers, insurance, and many more. Moreover, many of these new, or newly expanded, tools have in common a reliance on a host of third parties — such as commercial banks, nonprofit organizations, other levels of government, or for-profit companies — to implement public programs. The adoption of these tools has thus transformed the public sector from a provider to an arranger of services, with profound implications for the nature and content of public management and for democratic governance more generally. Those involved in public administration must consequently learn not only how to operate public agencies, but also the distinctive operating requirements of the different tools, many of which involve complex collaborative relationships with private contractors, regulated industries, nonprofit agencies, and other levels of government.

The Center has played a pivotal role in calling attention to this development and producing educational and other materials to promote understanding of it. This has included:

The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2002)
Edited by Center Director Lester M. Salamon, this comprehensive volume examines the tools of public action and the implications they have for public management and policy design. An Overview chapter outlines the "new governance" concept and relates it to prior approaches to public management. Subsequent chapters then examine each of the major tools. A concluding section explores the implications of the "new governance" for accountability, management, and democratic control.

The Tools of Government: Workbooks
These "workbooks" illustrate the operating mechanics of some of the major tools of government action and are designed to be used as instructional materials in conjunction with The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance. Each workbook features an existing or recent government program that embodies a specific tool of government and assembles key program documents that illustrate the major features of the tool. A set of questions is provided for each workbook to guide the reader through the material.

"Policy Tools and Government Performance"
This publication summarizes the proceedings of a recent conference, co-sponsored by the U.S. General Accounting Office, and U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, which examined the implications that the recent proliferation of tools of public action is having for government performance in the United States. The conference was designed to acquaint both policy scholars and practitioners with these alternative tools, and with the "tools approach" that focuses attention on them. More than that, it sought to establish an agenda for future action that might improve the operation of public programs by sensitizing policymakers and policy administrators to the distinctive features and operating demands of the various tools that public programs embody. The conference proceedings are available in hard copy form and online in pdf format, here.

"Training Professional Citizens: Getting Beyond the Right Answer to the Wrong Question in Public Affairs Education"
This speech by Lester Salamon was presented as the keynote address at the Annual Conference of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, Indianapolis, Indiana, October 22, 2004.