University of Pennsylvania Web Site Monitors Presidential Candidates' Campaign Pledges

PHILADELPHIA – The Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania has launched a nonpartisan Web site devoted to monitoring and analyzing government-reform proposals made by the 2008 presidential candidates.

TheNextGovernment.com (www.TheNextGovernment.com) is an effort to stimulate public discussion about the most significant challenges and issues facing the federal government.

“This Web site allows interested voters and analysts to carefully study how the presidential candidates plan on filling the job of chief executive,” Donald Kettl, director of Fels and founder of TheNextGovernment.com, said. “Since there are some big differences between the candidates, it also provides a way to weigh the campaigns on issues that often don’t get a lot of public attention but which will prove enormously important once one of these candidates is sworn in.”

The Web site compares how candidates pledge to reform five areas of government management: human resources/personnel, performance and accountability, information technology, organizational structure and budgeting.

Throughout the presidential campaign TheNextGovernment.com will identify and examine the public-management proposals of the candidates and offer expert analysis of their proposals on hot-topic federal management issues.