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 clich�.

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

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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