An analysis of the restructuring of South Carolina governmen

In 1920 South Carolina conducted its first study examining the need for a reorganization of state government. Although many studies and changes have been made, it took over 70 years for the legislature to act on these earlier recommendations and reorganize significant elements of the bureaucracy into functional departments by creating cabinet offices reporting to the governor. In this work I will examine the 1993 Restructuring Act that brought about these changes and analyze the effects it has had on South Carolina State government.;Although the governor's power was increased significantly with this act, some important recommendations were left out. Supporters of reorganization claim that the act was incomplete, and more work needs to be done. Opponents on the other hand, argue that state government is now even more insulated from the general public with an extra layer of bureaucracy.;Government reforms do not always achieve their intended aim. It is the purpose of this project to determine if the 1993 Restructuring Act achieved what the authors had hoped. A major challenge to this project is the lack of existing state-level evaluative data. When the South Carolina legislature passed the Restructuring Act, it did so without including any evaluation tools or specific goals to be met. This lack of benchmarks and performance indicators makes it difficult to effectively measure agency outcomes. Therefore, through in-depth interviews and a series of surveys, I attempt to determine the outcomes of restructuring and the effect it has had on the efficiency, accountability, and responsiveness of South Carolina state agencies. In addition, preexisting secondary budget and employment data are used to further explore the success of this major overhaul of state government.