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There has been a growing trend in the federal government toward reliance on organizations that commingle legal attributes of the government and private sectors. These hybrid organizations now constitute a quasi government that occasions both interest and concern by political leaders, practitioners, and scholars alike because these organizations touch the very heart of democratic governance: To whom are these hybrids accountable? How well is the public interest being protected against the interests of private parties? In this article, the author seeks to define the quasi government and place these hybrid entities into manageable categories from which legal and behavioral generalizations may be drawn. Are hybrid organizations a problem or a solution? Looking critically at this question, the author suggests the answer may depend in large measure on which of two management paradigms the reader accepts: the constitutionalist management paradigm or the entrepreneurial management paradigm, both of which are defined and discussed. The author concludes that the increasing reliance on hybrid organizations constitutes a threat not only to accountable management within the government, but to the fundamental values of democratic governance as well.

Is public administration at risk of losing its theoretical distinctiveness as a discipline of study and practice; and if so, is this cause for concern? Ronald C. Moe and Robert S. Gilmour examine these questions and respond in the affirmative. The not-so-gradual retreat of public adminstrationists from their discipline's intellectual tradition in public law has left them vulnerable to the appeals of those promoting generic behavioral principles of management as taught in schools of business. In response to the harmful effects of efforts to subject the executive branch to management practices more appropriate to the private sector, the authors propose ten principles which reaffirm the distinctive character of public administration. These principles are rooted in public law and provide a basic theoretical framework through which the administrative state can be effectively managed. Properly understood and implemented, these principles can accommodate and enhance many of the useful contemporary management concepts (Total Quality Management, for example) while still conforming to the requirements of the Constitution for politically accountable public sector management.

Privatization, as a concept and as a political movement, is profoundly altering the shape of the public sector in the United States. Distinctions between the public and private sectors are being blurred as the organizations for accomplishing public purposes are more and more frequently a deliberate blend of public and private characteristics. Throughout this transformation in the public sector, the discipline and profession most directly affected by privatization, public administration, has been remarkably passive, both unwilling and unable to raise critical questions respecting the limits, if any, to privatization. This essay suggests that the origins of this passivity lie in the reality that public administration has largely forsaken its intellectual roots-roots which are embedded in public law, not in economics or the social sciences. Only by returning to public law, which emphasizes the distinctive character of the public and private sectors, will public administrators become influential players in the continuing debate over the future of the public sector.

Abstract: The task of providing dictionaries for all the world's languages is prodigious, re-quiring efficient techniques. The text corpus method cannot be used for minority languages lacking texts. To meet the need, the author has constructed a list of 1 600 semantic domains, which he has successfully used to collect words. In a workshop setting, a group of speakers can collect as many as 17 000 words in ten days. This method results in a classified word list that can be efficiently expanded into a full dictionary. The method works because the mental lexicon is a giant web or-ganized around key concepts. A semantic domain can be defined as an important concept together with the words directly related to it by lexical relations. A person can utilize the mental web to quickly jump from word to word within a domain. The author is developing a template for each domain to aid in collecting words and in de-scribing their semantics. Investigating semantics within the context of a domain yields many in-sights. The method permits the production of both alphabetically and semantically organized dic-tionaries. The list of domains is intended to be universal in scope and applicability. Perhaps due to universals of human experience and universals of linguistic competence, there are striking simi-larities in various lists of semantic domains developed for languages around the world. Using a standardized list of domains to classify multiple dictionaries opens up possibilities for cross-lin-guistic research into semantic and lexical universals. Keywords: SEMANTIC DOMAINS, SEMANTIC FIELDS, SEMANTIC CATEGORIES, LEX-ICAL RELATIONS, SEMANTIC PRIMITIVES, DOMAIN TEMPLATES, MENTAL LEXICON, SEMANTIC UNIVERSALS, MINORITY LANGUAGES, LEXICOGRAPHY Opsomming: Samestelling van woordeboeke deur gebruikmaking van se-mantiese domeine. Die taak van die voorsiening van woordeboeke aan al die tale van die wêreld is geweldig en vereis doeltreffende tegnieke. Die tekskorpusmetode kan nie gebruik word vir minderheidstale waarin tekste ontbreek nie. Om in die behoefte te voorsien, het die skrywer 'n lys van 1 600 semantiese domeine opgestel wat hy suksesvol gebruik het om woorde te versamel. In 'n werksessie-omgewing kan 'n groep sprekers tot soveel as 17 000 woorde in tien dae versamel. Hierdie metode lei tot 'n geklassifiseerde woordelys wat doeltreffend uitgebrei kan word tot 'n volledige woordeboek. Die metode werk omdat die mentale leksikon 'n groot web is wat rondom sleutelbegrippe gestruktureer is. 'n Semantiese domein kan gedefinieer word as 'n belangrike kon-sep saam met die woorde wat direk daarmee verband hou vanweë leksikale verwantskappe. 'n Persoon kan die mentale web gebruik om vinnig van woord tot woord binne 'n domein te spring. Die skrywer is besig om vir elke domein 'n profiel te ontwikkel om te help met die versameling van woorde en met die beskrywing van hul semantiek. 'n Ondersoek van semantiek binne die konteks van 'n domein lewer baie insigte. Die metode laat die totstandbrenging van sowel alfabeties as semanties gerangskikte woordeboeke toe. Die lys domeine is bedoel om univer-seel in omvang en toepassing te wees. Moontlik as gevolg van universalia van menslike ervaring en universalia van taalkundige vermoë, is daar treffende ooreenkomste tussen verskillende lyste semantiese domeine wat ontwikkel is vir tale oor die hele wêreld. Die gebruik van 'n gestandaardi-seerde lys domeine om veelsoortige woordeboeke te klassifiseer, skep moontlikhede vir kruislin-guistiese navorsing oor semantiese en leksikale universalia. Sleutelwoorde: SEMANTIESE DOMEINE, SEMANTIESE VELDE, SEMANTIESE KATE-GORIEË, LEKSIKALE VERWANTSKAPPE, SEMANTIESE PRIMITIEWES, DOMEINPROFIELE, MENTALE LEKSIKON, SEMANTIESE UNIVERSALIA, MINDERHEIDSTALE, LEKSIKOGRAFIE

Until quite recently, the fortunes of the field of public administration and the institutional presidency were closely linked. Today, however, they are estranged, and both now follow separate agendas with respect to organizational and management issues, although neither can be said to be guided by a discernible set of principles or common purposes. Two intellectual trends account for much of this estrangement; the gradual abandonment by public administrators and political leaders alike of the traditional principles of organizational management and the redefining of the basis of presidential power and responsibility away from public law and administrative management toward a highly personal and politicized definition of the institutional presidency. The consequences of these trends have been costly to public administration as a field and to the political system generally. The challenge to public administration is to reverse these trends. This can be done only by reinvigorating the field's conceptual capital through a reconsideration of the utility of tested principles of organization and a reassessment of the proper managerial role for the President. The purpose of this rebuilding exercise is to assist governmental institutions to maintain their fundamental public law character while encouraging adaptation to a rapidly changing political environment.

Does the national government need an Office of Federal Management (OFM)? Ronald C. Moe argues that it is time to create such an agency through the reorganization of the Office of Management and Budget. Moe supports his contention with the lessons learned from recent scandals at the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The proposed OFM would operate under an organizational management strategy reflecting presidential goals and priorities, and would be provided with sufficient institutional support to carry out its government-wide tasks. With a focus on capacity building rather than control, the OFM would avoid reliance on financial techniques or \"placement of political appointees deep within agencies\" to keep administrative officials \"in line.\" The primary purpose driving these reforms is expressed in Moe's call for \"competent government\" to replace the image and reality of \"big government\" that currently characterizes assessments of the federal bureaucracy.

The juxtaposition of “political science” with the “savings and loan crisis” is interesting in part because it appears a peculiar pairing. What does, or should, political science as an academic discipline have to do with the current crisis in the savings and loan industry? A case can be made, and indeed is arguably the present dominant view within the discipline, that political scientists ought not to seek to be involved in any systematic way with public sector management problems or with governance generally. Following this reasoning, political science ought not to be interested in the savings and loan crisis other than, possibly, to study it after the fact as a political phenomenon. There are other political scientists, however, who are uneasy with this passive view of the discipline. They have seen the emergence of a massive institutional crisis in the financial system of the nation and no one has thought to seek their advice and counsel towards a solution to the crisis except for them to participate as taxpayers in picking up the bill. But of even greater concern to many of the thoughtful in these ranks is the realization that if someone were to call upon the discipline for advice and assistance, the discipline might have little to contribute. Few of the leaders in our discipline have expertise in the management of complex fields. Indeed, it is unusual today to find political scientists with any experience at all in governmental institutions or affairs. The estrangement between political science and the governance process of the Republic appears nearly complete.

A category of organization referred to as the \"government-sponsored enterprise\" (GSE) poses a critical financial and accountability challenge to American political institutions. The largest and perhaps best known GSEs are the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). GSEs have a legal status that deliberately straddles the public and private sectors. Although privately owned for profit, GSEs can expose the U. S. Treasury--and taxpayers--to massive financial liability. Federal oversight of GSEs is fragmented and generally ineffective, thereby leaving the public's interests subordinated to private interests. The authors argue that the first step toward imposing appropriate financial and political accountability is to enact a generic GSE management law which defines the attributes of GSEs, prescribes reporting and examination requirements, and imposes restrictions on financial risk taking. A new federal agency would be responsible for GSE regulatory oversight. This article reviews the problem of GSE financial accountability, and it suggests a solution that can reassert the distinctive legal and administrative characteristics of the public and private sectors.