Governing

Bureaucratic blight

官僚體制的枯萎

WASHINGTON, DC

The federal government’s ability to operate e?ectively was already in question. Then Donald Trump became its master

聯(lián)邦政府有效運(yùn)作的能力已經(jīng)受到質(zhì)疑。如今，唐納德·特朗普(Donald Trump)成了他的主人

When donald trump took o?ce in January 2017, Joel Clement was entering his seventh year running the Interior Department’s O?ce of Policy Analysis. Mr Clement worked on climate-change preparedness, particularly for Alaskan Natives in low-lying coastal villages. He knew that Mr Trump was a climate-change sceptic, but, he explains, “I didn’t think there would be a problem. These were actual people at risk. It’s not a question of what caused climate change; it’s what was already happening. I was naive. They came out swinging.” In June 2017 Mr Clement— who has experience in neither accounting nor the fossil-fuel industry—was reassigned to an o?ce that collects royalty checks from oil, gas and mining ?rms.

2017年1月，唐納德·特朗普(donald trump)上任時(shí)，喬爾·克萊門(mén)特(Joel Clement)正進(jìn)入執(zhí)掌內(nèi)政部政策分析辦公室的第七年。克萊門(mén)特致力于應(yīng)對(duì)氣候變化，特別是為沿海低洼村莊的阿拉斯加原住民服務(wù)。他知道特朗普對(duì)氣候變化持懷疑態(tài)度，但他解釋說(shuō)，“我不認(rèn)為氣候變化是有什么值得懷疑的。事實(shí)已經(jīng)表明有人處在氣候變化下的危險(xiǎn)環(huán)境之中。問(wèn)題不在于是什么致使了氣候變化，而是要面對(duì)這已經(jīng)發(fā)生了。我曾經(jīng)對(duì)此還是很天真，但現(xiàn)在氣候變化已經(jīng)帶來(lái)巨大影響?？巳R門(mén)特既沒(méi)有會(huì)計(jì)經(jīng)驗(yàn)，也沒(méi)有化石燃料行業(yè)的經(jīng)驗(yàn)。2017年6月，他被調(diào)任到一個(gè)從石油、天然氣和礦業(yè)公司收取特許權(quán)使用費(fèi)的辦公室。

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Mr Clement was one of 27 senior o?cials reassigned; he resigned soon afterwards. Perhaps he should not have been surprised. Di?erent administrations do things di?erently. Mr Trump ran as a climate-change sceptic and made Je? Sessions his ?rst attorney-general; of course his environmental and civil-rights policies would be di?erent from Barack Obama’s. Yet even those who wish the federal government were much smaller have an interest in making sure that its bureacracies can perform the tasks that most Americans agree are vital, from air-tra?c control to co-ordinating the response to natural disasters. The federal government’s ability to do these things was in question long before 2016. Then Mr Trump happened.

克萊門(mén)特是被調(diào)任的27名高級(jí)官員之一;不久他就辭職了。也許他不應(yīng)該感到驚訝。不同的政府采取不同的措施。特朗普以氣候變化懷疑論者的身份參選，并任命杰夫?塞申斯(Jeff Sessions)為首任司法部長(zhǎng);當(dāng)然，他的環(huán)境和民權(quán)政策將與巴拉克?奧巴馬不同。然而，即使是那些希望聯(lián)邦政府規(guī)模小得多的人，也有興趣確保聯(lián)邦政府各部門(mén)能夠履行大多數(shù)美國(guó)人認(rèn)為至關(guān)重要的任務(wù)，從空中交通管制到協(xié)調(diào)應(yīng)對(duì)自然災(zāi)害。早在2016年之前，聯(lián)邦政府做這些事情的能力就受到了質(zhì)疑。如今這一切在特朗普身上應(yīng)驗(yàn)了。

詞匯

attorney-general/ ?司法部長(zhǎng)；總檢察長(zhǎng)

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Criticising the federal government— which employs around 2.1m civilians, making it America’s single biggest employer—is the hardiest perennial of American politics. To many outside Washington, DC, it is an abstraction and hence easy to caricature, mock or blame. Its most visible bits (namely, Congress) tend to be unpopular, while its essential functions often go unseen. Americans seldom encounter the scientists ensuring their water stays clean or that nuclear waste is properly disposed of. Most people do not think of the men and women they salute at football games as employees of the federal government.

批評(píng)雇傭了210萬(wàn)平民的聯(lián)邦政府，使其成為美國(guó)最大的雇主，這是美國(guó)政治中最難對(duì)付的常年問(wèn)題。對(duì)于華盛頓特區(qū)以外的許多人來(lái)說(shuō)，這是一個(gè)抽象概念，因此很容易被諷刺、嘲笑或指責(zé)。其最明顯的部分(即國(guó)會(huì))往往不受歡迎，而其基本職能往往不為人知。美國(guó)人很少能求得能確保水保持清潔或核廢料得到妥善處理的科學(xué)家。大多數(shù)人并不認(rèn)為他們?cè)谧闱虮荣愔芯炊Y的男男女女是聯(lián)邦政府的雇員。

詞匯

Perennial/多年生的；常年的

Caricature/ ?把……畫(huà)成漫畫(huà)；滑稽地描述，使滑稽化

Salute/ ?致敬，歡迎；敬禮

Despite many Republican presidents running on government-shrinking platforms, and many Democrats doing the opposite, the size of the federal workforce has remained relatively constant since the 1960s. Since 1965 the federal government has added ?ve departments and multiple agencies that collectively employ hundreds of thousands of people. It has also endured long hiring freezes. The total number of workers matters less to e?ective governance than what those workers do, and here alarm bells have been ringing for some time. Max Stier, who heads the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that advocates for an e?ective civil service, says that the “l(fā)egacy government has not kept up with the world around it…[and] has not been updated to address the problems of tomorrow.”

盡管許多共和黨總統(tǒng)都是在政府收縮的平臺(tái)上競(jìng)選，而許多民主黨總統(tǒng)則相反，但自上世紀(jì)60年代以來(lái)，聯(lián)邦政府的勞動(dòng)力規(guī)模一直相對(duì)穩(wěn)定。自1965年以來(lái)，聯(lián)邦政府增加了五個(gè)部門(mén)和多個(gè)機(jī)構(gòu)，總共雇用了數(shù)十萬(wàn)人。他還經(jīng)歷了長(zhǎng)期的招聘冰河期。對(duì)于有效治理而言，工人總數(shù)的重要性不如工人的工作，而這方面的警鐘已經(jīng)敲響了一段時(shí)間。公共服務(wù)伙伴關(guān)系(Partnership for Public Service)是一個(gè)倡導(dǎo)有效公務(wù)員制度的無(wú)黨派組織，其負(fù)責(zé)人馬克斯?斯蒂爾(Max Stier)表示，“傳統(tǒng)政府沒(méi)有跟上周?chē)澜绲牟椒ァ?而且)也沒(méi)有更新?lián)Q代，以應(yīng)對(duì)未來(lái)的問(wèn)題?！?/p>

詞匯

Nonpartisan/無(wú)黨派的；超黨派的

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The Government Accountability O?ce (GAO), which audits the federal government, has long warned of problems in recruiting and retaining public-spirited workers. The compensation system was designed in 1949 and has barely since been altered. This can make it hard to o?er competitive salaries to, say, cyber-security experts. Civil-service rules have not been updated since the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. The government frequently recruits for positions whose descriptions were written 40 years ago and do not re?ect the actual work being done. According to Mr Stier, the federal IT workforce has ?ve times as many people over the age of 60 as under 30, and most of the $95bn spent on federal IT goes to patching and maintaining ancient systems. And while low and mid-level government workers earn salaries comparable to or better than what they could make in the private sector, senior of?cials earn far less. Government workers must also endure hiring freezes, furloughs and government shutdowns.

負(fù)責(zé)審計(jì)聯(lián)邦政府的美國(guó)審計(jì)總署(GAO)長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)一直警告說(shuō)，在招聘和留住具有公益精神的員工方面存在問(wèn)題。薪酬體系是1949年設(shè)計(jì)的，自那以來(lái)幾乎沒(méi)有改變過(guò)。這使得向網(wǎng)絡(luò)安全專家等提供具有競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力的薪酬變得困難。自1978年的《公務(wù)員制度改革法案》以來(lái)，公務(wù)員制度規(guī)則一直沒(méi)有更新。政府經(jīng)常招聘的職位描述是40年前寫(xiě)的，不能反映實(shí)際工作。斯蒂爾表示，聯(lián)邦政府IT部門(mén)60歲以上員工的數(shù)量是30歲以下員工的5倍，在聯(lián)邦政府用于IT部門(mén)的950億美元中，大部分用于修補(bǔ)和維護(hù)古老的操作系統(tǒng)。盡管中低級(jí)別政府工作人員的工資水平與私營(yíng)部門(mén)相當(dāng)，甚至更高，但高級(jí)官員的工資要低得多。政府工作人員還必須忍受停止招聘、休假和政府關(guān)門(mén)。

Until fairly recently federal workers did at least receive non-monetary compensation, such as reputational boosts, or the satisfaction of contributing to the common good. Teresa Gerton, who heads the National Academy of Public Administration, says this bargain has started to fray. “We saw it during the shutdown last year. The impact that had on the morale of the current and future public workforce was devastating.” Nor does serving for the most divisive president in modern history provide the same social compensation as serving a Reagan or a Clinton.

直到最近，聯(lián)邦政府的工作人員至少還能得到非金錢(qián)形式的補(bǔ)償，比如聲譽(yù)提升，或者為公共利益做出貢獻(xiàn)的滿足感。美國(guó)國(guó)家公共行政學(xué)院(National Academy of Public Administration)院長(zhǎng)特蕾莎?格頓(Teresa Gerton)表示，這一協(xié)議已開(kāi)始出現(xiàn)分歧?！拔覀?cè)谌ツ暾P(guān)門(mén)期間看到了這一點(diǎn)。對(duì)當(dāng)前和未來(lái)公共勞動(dòng)力士氣的影響是毀滅性的?！睘楝F(xiàn)代史上分歧最大的總統(tǒng)服務(wù)，提供的社會(huì)補(bǔ)償也比不上為里根或克林頓服務(wù)。

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Morale in the intelligence community and State Department—both frequent targets of Mr Trump’s ire—is lower than the Badwater Basin. Intelligence o?cers usually battle to get their work included in the president’s daily brief. Today, says a source familiar with American intelligence, they ?ght to stay o? it, lest their analysis set the president o? because it clashes with his ?xed beliefs. Former foreign-service o?cers (FSOS) complain about a lack of direction and months of painstaking work being nulli?ed by a presidential tweet. In recent weeks two ex-FSOS have written op-eds in newspapers explaining why they could no longer serve this White House. That is rarely done: FSOS understand they will serve administrations whose policies they may dislike, but they represent something greater than themselves, and few slam the door on the way out. Often the people leaving have good o?ers in the private sector and are the sort of people that a government should want to retain.

情報(bào)部門(mén)和國(guó)務(wù)院的士氣——這兩個(gè)都是特朗普頻頻發(fā)泄憤怒的目標(biāo)——低于惡水盆地。情報(bào)官員通常會(huì)努力讓他們的工作被納入總統(tǒng)的每日簡(jiǎn)報(bào)。今天，據(jù)一位熟悉美國(guó)情報(bào)的消息人士稱，他們竭力避免參與其中，以免他們的分析因?yàn)榕c他的固定信念相沖突而觸發(fā)總統(tǒng)。前外交官員(FSOS)抱怨說(shuō)，總統(tǒng)的一條推文取消了他們幾個(gè)月來(lái)的辛勤工作并使得丟失方向。最近幾周，兩名前外交官員成員在報(bào)紙上發(fā)表專欄文章，解釋他們?yōu)楹尾荒茉贋榘讓m服務(wù)。這種情況很少發(fā)生:外交官員明白，他們將為那些他們可能不喜歡其政策的政府服務(wù)，但他們代表著比自己更偉大的東西，很少有人會(huì)在退出時(shí)砰地一聲關(guān)上大門(mén)。通常離開(kāi)的人在私營(yíng)部門(mén)有很好的工作機(jī)會(huì)，是政府應(yīng)該留住的那種人。

詞匯

Ire/憤怒

nulli?ed/取消的

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Nor is the problem limited to departing personnel. Mr Trump’s penchant for installing people on an acting basis rather than formally nominating them, the unusually high number of un?lled positions, the headspinning rate of turnover among senior sta? and the number of nominees he has had to withdraw—65, compared with 34 for Mr Obama at this point in his presidency—render government unstable. Agencies’ attention turns toward senior-sta? turnover rather than their missions; recruits do not know who they will work for in six months.

這個(gè)問(wèn)題不僅限于離職人員。特朗普傾向于通過(guò)行動(dòng)讓人就任而不是正式提名,異常高數(shù)額的空缺職位,令人頭暈?zāi)垦５哪觊L(zhǎng)員工的人員流動(dòng)以及他撤回的已經(jīng)被提名的員工數(shù)目——65，相比較奧巴馬在位時(shí)的34人——這致使了政府的不穩(wěn)定。國(guó)際機(jī)關(guān)的注意力轉(zhuǎn)向高級(jí)職員的更替，而不是他們的使命;新員工不知道他們將在6個(gè)月內(nèi)為誰(shuí)工作。

詞匯

Penchant/嗜好；傾向

Install/安裝；使就任

Nominee/被任命者；被提名的人

Presidency/總統(tǒng)的職位（任期）；管轄；支配

Render/致使

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Of course, not everyone in government is running for the exits. Mr Trump has plenty of fans among immigration police, whose former acting head praised the president for “taking the handcu?s o?”. Morale, measured in annual surveys, is also comparatively high at the departments of Transportation and Health and Human Services, agencies that Mr Trump has either boosted or ignored.

當(dāng)然，并不是所有的政府官員都在尋求退路。特朗普在移民警察中有很多粉絲，他們的前代理局長(zhǎng)稱贊總統(tǒng)“脫下了手銬”。以年度調(diào)查衡量，交通、衛(wèi)生和公共服務(wù)部的士氣也相對(duì)較高，而特朗普要么支持要么忽視了這些部門(mén)。

詞匯

handcu?/手銬

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If the Trump administration is upset about the hollowing out of American government, it does not show. The Agriculture Department is losing researchers after Sonny Perdue, the secretary, announced that two research agencies would move to Kansas City, not an unreasonable request in itself, but one which some see as a way to sideline inconvenient personnel. Mick Mulvaney, the president’s acting chief of sta?, celebrated their departure at a Republican fundraiser, calling it “a wonderful way to streamline government”. But there is a di?erence between streamlining government and just not governing, which is what seems to be happening in swathes of America’s single-largest organisation.

如果說(shuō)特朗普政府對(duì)美國(guó)政府的空心化感到不安，那是沒(méi)有表現(xiàn)出來(lái)的。在農(nóng)業(yè)部長(zhǎng)桑尼·珀杜(Sonny Perdue)宣布兩家研究機(jī)構(gòu)將遷往堪薩斯城(Kansas City)之后，農(nóng)業(yè)部正在失去研究人員，這本身并不是一個(gè)不合理的要求，但一些人認(rèn)為這是一種將不方便的人員邊緣化的方式?？偨y(tǒng)的代理幕僚長(zhǎng)米克?馬爾瓦尼(Mick Mulvaney)在一場(chǎng)共和黨籌款活動(dòng)上慶祝了他們的離開(kāi)，稱這是“精簡(jiǎn)政府的一種絕妙方式”。但是精簡(jiǎn)政府機(jī)構(gòu)和不進(jìn)行管理是有區(qū)別的，這似乎是美國(guó)最大的單一組織中正在發(fā)生的事情。

詞匯

Sideline/迫使退出

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