Curriculum Changes (Part 2 of 2)

Core idea

The Reconstruction Commission Report, drafted by Moses in 1919, proposed to consolidate 187 New York State boards into 18 departments, lengthen the governor's term from two to four years, give the governor an executive budget, and shorten the ballot to only governor and lt-governor. Most of it eventually passed — over six years, against ferocious legislative resistance — and made New York the model of executive-centered state government. It also gave Moses, as Smith's draftsman, enormous downstream leverage.

Why it matters

Why 187 boards was the right number to attack

New York State government in 1919 was a patchwork of overlapping agencies with no single executive responsible for outcomes. Moses's diagnosis was structural: no single executive could be held responsible because no single executive controlled the levers. The consolidation to 18 departments made the governor accountable for everything beneath.

The executive budget — the part that mattered most

The least-discussed piece, and the most important, was the executive budget: the governor proposes; the legislature amends but cannot initiate. This concentrated fiscal power in the executive on a scale unprecedented in American state government. Moses, as draftsman of the budget every year afterward, would acquire downstream leverage from every line item.

Key takeaways

Mental model

Copy sourceZoom

Practical application

Example

The U.S. federal Department of Homeland Security (2002) consolidated 22 separate agencies, much as Moses's plan consolidated 187 boards. The structural change worked where the cultural change did not — the Department's components still operate as separate fiefdoms twenty years later. Reorganization is necessary but never sufficient.

Related lessons