Public Authorities and Public Policy: The Business of Government.

We live in the age of public-private partnerships. Perhaps no other governmental entity exemplifies the blurred lines between public/private fiscal and functional responsibilities as well as the public authority.

Four broad themes can be gleaned from the twelve chapters in this edited volume. One is that public authorities for the most part still remain out of the public's eye. Only recently have they captured the attention of the public policy analysts in response to heightened publicity regarding their financing and governance. However, the paucity of comparative data still remains an obstacle to in-depth analyses of these entities.

A second theme is that public authorities are undergoing some real changes. They have become more diverse in their revenue sources, functional activities, and governing board representation. They have also become more responsive to demands for better accountability, more citizen and employee input, and more rigorous performance/outcome assessment (cf. chapters by Robert G. Smith; Jerry Mitchell; Jameson W. Doig and Jerry Mitchell; Joel M. Douglas; Bradley M. Braun; Donald T. Wells and Richard Scheff).

Critics assert that many of the changes contradict the very purposes for which public authorities initially were created during the Progressive Era -- "to be independent of elected officials and the statutory rules applied to traditional government agencies." (p. 3) But proponents maintain that these changes have been positive -- and necessary -- as equity and accountability concerns have become as important as efficiency goals.

A third theme, more prescriptive in nature, is that public authorities ought to behave more like general purpose governements. Proponents of broader, more diverse public authorities perceive that they are (and must) be more responsive to social problems. (See chapters by William B. Eimicke on the financing of public housing by the New York Battery Park City Authority; and Deborah Wathen Finn on The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's approach to the homeless.)

A fourth theme is that no matter how "apolitical" public authorities wre initially designed to be, they are still highly political, most notably when authority boundaries cut across jusrisdictional lines and have the potential to affect economic growth and development patterns. The intense intergovernmental conflicts that may emerge under such circumstances are well-delineated in the chapter by Dennis C. Muniak detailing the creation of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Another chapter, by Michael K. Heiman, observes similar intergovernmental tensions when public authorities attempt (unsuccessfully) to deal with politically volatile issues such as hazardous waste facility sitings.

The primary shortcoming of the book is the unevenness and disjointedness of the chapters, a problem common to edited volumes in general. The reader never gets a feel for whether experiences of the different public authorities highlighted in the various chapters are universal or somewhat unique to a particular authority.

Nonetheless, this volume is useful as a general introduction to public authorities -- their historical purposes and development patterns, functional responsibilities, and use of bonds. (The chapter on contemporary debt financing by Jerry Mitchell and Gerald J. Miller is particularly informative).

But its most lasting contribution may well be its research-agenda-setting dimension. For policy analysts in the areas of intergovernmental relations, public finance, and public administration, this book offers up numerous research propositions just waiting to be tested. The Select Bibliography offers a good starting place for those wishing to venture into this area of research.

Susan A. MacManus
University of South Florida, Tampa