Democracy’s Hidden Heroes

• In Event: Mismeasuring Nonprofit impact: What Goes Wrong and How to Do It Better

Abstract

This book project tells the story of the local public managers and nonprofit directors who work where bureaucratic hierarchies and community networks meet and often collide. The presentation will focus on the role of middle managers—public and nonprofit—in the success or failure of anti-poverty programs. The literature has treated local public managers as abusers of discretion who undermine well-intended federal policies (Pressman and Wildavsky 1979), as bulwarks of the status quo who thwart community initiative (Glazer 1988; McKnight 1995), or as irrelevant in a world where the center controls the periphery without the need for layers of middle managers (Sennett 2006). While acknowledging the partial truth in all these views, the author articulates an alternative, making a case for the central and decisive role middle managers can, do, and should play in modulating central directives by ensuring “fit to people and place,” in ways that respect diversity in all its varied forms. These hidden heroes struggle to align universal rules and compliance demands—including accountability and reporting requirements—with the unique circumstances facing their organizations and communities. The book recounts compelling stories of the workarounds, sidesteps, informal agreements, and grantor-grantee negotiations that help policy initiatives succeed as intended. The settings include schools, human services agencies, and community-based organizations. The book explains why it is difficult, though necessary, to translate locally-attuned implementation dynamics into accountability metrics for distant funders. Drawing on 2,000 interviews, Hidden Heroes is the culmination of decades talking to people who must reconcile bureaucratic and community cultures. 

Author

• David C Campbell, American Society for Public Administration
  Presenting Author