Rise of the Quasi Government

Abetted by official secrecy and one-party dominance, the character of American government is undergoing a series of fundamental transformations. While the concentration of power in the executive branch continues apace, traditional mechanisms of government accountability are being diminished or dismantled, and agency actions are increasingly insulated from citizen oversight or awareness.
As the role of citizens in the democratic process has declined, the importance of new constellations of power and influence has risen. One such newly prominent construct is the "quasi government," described by the Congressional Research Service as "federally related entities that possess legal characteristics of both the governmental and private sectors."
"These hybrid organizations (e.g., Fannie Mae, National Park Foundation, In-Q-Tel)... have grown in number, size, and importance in recent decades," the CRS stated in a new report.
"The quasi government, not surprisingly, is a controversial subject. To supporters of this trend toward greater reliance upon hybrid organizations, the proper objective of governmental management is to maximize performance and results, however defined... They tend to welcome this trend toward greater use of quasi governmental entities."
"Critics of the quasi government, on the other hand, tend to view hybrid organizations as contributing to a weakened capacity of government to perform its fundamental constitutional duties, and to an erosion in political accountability, a crucial element in democratic governance...."
"Time will tell whether the emergence of the quasi government is to be viewed as a symptom of decline in our democratic government, or a harbinger of a new, creative management era where the purported artificial barriers between the governmental and private sectors are breached as a matter of principle."
A copy of the CRS report was obtained by Secrecy News.

See "The Quasi Government: Hybrid Organizations with Both Government and Private Sector Legal Characteristics," updated May 18, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30533.pdf