Decades of patronage had left the impression, too often merited, that public administration in Illinois was in the hands of the lazy or the incompetent. Usually at about the second cup of coffee at the diner or the second beer at the bar, a Springfieldian abroad will hear how the capital city’s adult population consists mostly of layabouts and spongers living large at the expense of honest hardworking taxpayers in the rest of the state.

​

I spent too much time working with or writing about career state employees to entertain such notions. A dozen obstacles keep good employees from doing a good job. Attempts to modernize state government administration began in earnest with the beginning of the 20th century and were championed to some effect by governors such as Frank Lowden and Richard Ogilvie. The usual remedies were merit hiring, agency reorganizations, performance pay, and the adoption—usually fitful and slow—of new office technologies.

 

Alas, such fads faded and governors retired and career public servant as often as not were left to bear the burden of reformers’ hopes alone. Rather than improve the bureaucracy, recent governors such as Quinn and Blagojevich and (especially) Rauner went a long way toward destroying it through inattention. under-funding, or anti-government ideological zeal.

 

Still, the work gets done.