Stop Legislating, Start Managing

Joe Klein has a provocative piece in TIME this week making the case that the Obama administration ought to slow down and learn a thing or two about management before it pushes any more big legislative initiatives.

Klein expresses a frustration that many federal managers, rank and file employees, labor union leaders and academic experts have shared for years: Washington places a lot more emphasis on passing laws than implementing them. "Good management," he writes "is, sadly, neither a government specialty nor a priority for either political party." (I can almost hear Bob Tobias shouting "Amen!")

Then Klein makes it political: "Democrats tend to be more interested in legislating than in managing," he writes. "They come to office filled with irrational exuberance, pass giant fur balls of legislation -- stuff that often sounds fabulous, in principle -- and expect a stultified bureaucracy, bereft of the incentives and punishments of the private sector, to manage it all with the efficiency of a bounty hunter. This has always been the strongest conservative argument against government activism. Traditionally, Republicans were more concerned with good management than Democrats -- until the Reagan era, when the 'government is the problem' mantra took hold. If you don't believe in government, you don't bother much with governing efficiently."

While Klein points the finger at politicians for failing to take management seriously, he doesn't spare the career federal workforce. He writes: "Three types of people tend to seek government work: idealists, those looking for sinecures and those who want to build lucrative private-sector careers based on their knowledge of government regulations. All three types present problems."