Don't Run the Government Like a Business

Abstract

In recent testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on defense reform, more than one expert declared the need to emulate business practice or loosen the rules regarding private sector executives serving at the department. But there are two interrelated problems with these admonitions to run the Pentagon, in particular, and the U.S. government, in general, like a business. First, and most obviously, the government is not a business. Second, the Department of Defense is already run like a business and that the culprit behind its chronic dysfunction.