Why politics isn't business as usual

Democrats usually turn for inspiration to universities and law schools (not exactly fonts of conservatism or even of moderation), Republicans to business and business schools. The GOP loves to call for applying the businessman's common sense to government problems. Rumsfeld, a former Fortune 500 executive, is applying business methods (just-in-time inventories, information networks, strict control of labor costs) to try and transform the Pentagon and, while he's at it, win the war in Iraq.

The precedents aren't entirely encouraging. In the 1960s, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara tried to revolutionize the Pentagon using the systems analysis techniques he'd championed in his former job as president of Ford Motor Co. He succeeded in discrediting himself, the techniques and the war he was trying to win.

Pray things work out better this time. In general, however, the analogy between business and politics so beloved by Republicans is a flawed one. At the simplest level, politicians report to a large electorate and have fixed terms of office; businessmen do not. And although the latter can hire and fire at will, the former cannot, and thus face vast, recalcitrant bureaucracies.

Second, government deals not merely with property, vital as that is, but also with life and liberty. Government thus involves issues of national defense, criminal justice and other "involuntary transactions" backed by a monopoly on the legitimate use of force.

Third, though both pursuits involve self-interest, economic self-interest is less complicated. By contrast, there are many forms of political self-interest, frequently in conflict: Should you desire security or glory? Low taxes or a balanced budget? Much political skill must be devoted to persuading people where, exactly, their interest lies. (This is the rhetorical part, at which Bush doesn't excel.)

Finally, and most significantly, politics has to reconcile multiple goals -- consent, security, liberty, prosperity, justice, virtue -- in the presence of continuing disagreements about both means and ends. These inherent differences frustrate, eventually, all businesslike schemes of government. Too bad they don't teach that in business school.