s the articles for this issue of Public Policy & Practice were being prepared, the South Carolina General Assembly was continuing its deliberations over the state's budget for next fiscal year. As this process has unfolded, it has spotlighted the continuing challenges facing the state. The measures considered in addressing the budget situation – from the need for the Department of Corrections to run at a deficit next year in order to avoid crippling cutbacks, to the possibility of tuition increases at the state's institutions of higher education and cuts in programs in state agencies, from social services, to health, to transportation, to the environment – have underscored the need to manage scarce resources more effectively. And effective management is the theme running through the articles in this issue. In Supreme Court Justice Jean Toal's piece, she describes some of the changes and improvements in management in state government that have taken place during her time in public service in South Carolina. Richard Young's article on the Baldrige Quality Process provides some of this history of this program and discusses how its implementation can lead to improvement in public sector organizations. In the article on the South Carolina Municipal Benchmarking Project, Anna Berger details a significant collaborative effort among a number of South Carolina cities designed to improve the effectiveness of service provision in a several areas. Finally, Nancy Pursley's review of Robert D. Behn's Rethinking Democratic Accountability illustrates some of the challenges involved in managing a public sector organization effectively given current conceptions about accountability in our democratic system.

This issue of Public Policy & Practice was not originally designed to be a "theme issue." The fact that the topic of effective public management is touched on in each of these articles is an indication of the importance of this issue in South Carolina today, and we welcome your comments on these articles. Please e-mail any comments to Young-Richard@sc.edu.