By LEE HOWELL
Politically Speaking

How often have you heard some politician in either party rant and rave on the stump about how government should be run like a business?

Most of us have heard it so often that the words have become almost a clichÈ.

And, consequently, we have almost become immune to candidates who make that plea — and to candidates who themselves have as their only qualification for public office that they have been a success in business.

(Oh, sure, Steve Forbes has a seat at the table in this year's presidential poker game — indeed, he may pick up the pieces and put them together if the front-runner fails in the long haul — but it is not because he is or was a successful business person: Rather, it is because, like Guy “Moneybags” Millner in Georgia's last gubernatorial race, he is not shy about digging deeply into his own pockets to promote his own campaign.)

Obviously, we will always have politicians who say it — and it does sound good — but, like many mantras which become timeworn and meaningless through over-repetition, it just does not solve anything.

In the first place, it is a false goal to pursue.

For, governments are not businesses, and they cannot — indeed, should not — be run like one.

In fact, when business persons do manage to get themselves elected to office, they quickly learn several key lessons.

First of all, they enter into their duties and pretty quickly learn that they don't know anything about what they are supposed to be doing.

The concluding scene in the old Robert Redford movie is too true for words.

Redford portrays a candidate nobody ever expected to win — he's too young, too liberal, and all the other “too's” which make him unelectable — but he wins, defeating a 28-year incumbent who seemed to be unbeatable. As the movie ends, he grabs his top campaign aide, sits him down in a small private room away from his cheering supporters, and asks plaintively, “What do I do now?”

They may have been successes in business and they may used their expertise to put together winning campaign coalitions, raise money, and the like.

But, running a campaign is somewhat different from running the government.

(This is why so many winning political candidates have lousy first years in office: They simply transform their top campaign staff into department heads and, then after a few months, they have to replace the whole lot of them and bring in some professional government types to effectively deliver the services demanded by the voters.)

Besides, there are so many requirements in government — such as delivering public services that will never be profitable or abiding by the open meeting regulations — that would make operating in the private sector impossible.

And, local government that gets into fiscal trouble does not have the option of diversifying the product line in order to find new profit centers.

(After all, as one city council member in Bridgeport, Conn., which teetered on bankruptcy in the early 1990s, said at the time, “If this was a business, we would just shut down the unprofitable operation and move the whole thing South.”)

Then, there is the personnel situation: In private business, top leadership is usually permanent and it is the support staff which shifts regularly.

But, business people (and even veteran politicians) who take over the reigns of government are in for a rude awakening when they confront the bureaucrats and are told, “Hey, you're just a short-timer: I will be here until I retire, long after you are gone.”

(If you think it is tough to fire an employee in the private sector, try getting rid of an entrenched bureaucrat in government. It is nigh impossible.)

Of course, having said all that, there are some things that government can learn from business.

There are some philosophies and practices which can be borrowed from the business world and used successfully in government.

But, the most successful public leaders will be those who realize that governments were not meant to be run like businesses and could not be even if one wanted to do so.

We don't need to reinvent government: We just need to make sure that it runs like it is supposed to.

[Lee N. Howell is an award-winning writer who has been observing politics and society in the Southern Crescent, the state, and nation for the past 25 years.]

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