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The size and efficiency of Hawaii's government occupied this 1993 broadcast. George Mason, editorial page editor of Pacific Business News, argued that state government employment had grown at roughly ten times the rate of the private sector since 1970, attributing the trend to the political influence of public-sector unions and to a one-party political system that removed meaningful accountability. He contended that government processes were inherently inefficient because process, not outcome, served as the measure of performance. Dolores Foley, a professor of public administration at the University of Hawaii, questioned whether size was the right frame for the debate, arguing that the proper measure was whether government was performing the right functions effectively and equitably. She acknowledged inefficiency as a genuine problem but cautioned against treating privatisation as a cure-all, noting that government must also meet criteria of equity and effectiveness that private enterprise is not required to satisfy. Both guests agreed that low voter turnout and widespread citizen disengagement allowed problems to persist. Whether Hawaii should scale back or restructure its public sector, and how it might do so without sacrificing equitable service delivery, is the question the episode raised.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.
Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
