What Middle Managers Do in Local Government: Stewardship of the Public Trust and the Limits of Reinventing Government

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Abstract
Can we afford to eliminate middle managers in local government? Douglas Morgan and colleagues argue that middle managers play distinctive roles as ''keepers of two functions'' that are essential to the health of our democratic polity: helping to define ''acceptable service'' and making the delivery of public services accountable. The authors contend that current efforts to eliminate layers of middle management through contracting out for services, privatizing, reinventing government, and other mechanisms to reshape the role of democratic governance need to be carefully informed and guided by a full understanding of the essential functions that middle managers play in maintaining the healthy functioning of our democratic order. They conclude that this steward-hip role will become increasingly more important as national and state governments continue to decentralize the locus of responsibility for regulation and service delivery.

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