Politicians and Job Performance in the Public vs. the Private Sector

[Mike]

http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-new-york/will-bloomberg-really-not-run-for-president


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/nyregion/30snow.html?_r=1&hp

In many (if not most) private businesses past performance is a valuable criterion for evaluating a job applicant, or for considering an employe for promotion. What are your thoughts (not about Mr. Bloomberg per se but) about the relative importance of job performance as it affects a politician's qualifications for a bigger job?

[W.E.B. Du Bois]

I think that a person's work history in either the private or public sector is relevant to whether they should be elected. Since Republicans generally run on their records as businessmen or women, then they definitely have to be judged by their performance as businessmen or women. Are good businessman traits good governor and good President traits? Businesspeople are called successful for doing things that might be considered unethical (i.e. outsourcing, taking big risks, giving out big bonuses to the top and pay cuts and downsizing at the bottom). It's the government's job to minimize the negative impacts of the free market, but on the other hand the government also needs to get efficiency out of all public employees.

[Kazikli Bey]

I think it's a good start but I also think it depends on exactly what they were doing. I think a lot of government is problem solving, looking at individual programs and seeing why they stagnate and what can be done to fix them. There's no point in fixing things that aren't broken, nor scrapping essentials based upon ideology. Good leaders aren't necessarily the orators, nor war-time strategists, but they should be capable at finding and fixing problems.

[Mike]

Yes, I agree with both of you. With regard to W.E.B.'s remarks I also think many candidates use the tactic of diverting the voters' attention by focusing on their accumulation of wealth or revenue as examples of business accumen. As W.E.B. points out, those candidates often neglect other details about their business history that might actually reveal undesireable traits and lack of skills thereby rightfully disqualifying them for greater responsibilities.

Just as Kazikli points out, greater responsibilities are usually not only related to managing budgets and spending tax-dollars. There are other administrative/executive aspects, too. And it seems to me that if a candidate's history reveals a certain ineptitude or history of failures with regard to problem-solving or resolving the crises that must be expected to occur within the pervue of a lower office (such as a city mayor who wants to be governor, or governor who wants to be Pesident) then that is a key indicator of what we could expect from that candidate if we put her into a job with greater responsbilities.

[Kazikli Bey]

As W.E.B. points out, those candidates often neglect other details about their business history that might actually reveal undesireable traits and lack of skills thereby rightfully disqualifying them for greater responsibilities.

More than that too. It's not hard to run a company that is already made. Whilst you can easily destroy a company, keeping a company that is already large enough with a sizable foot-hold in the market in the black is fairly easy. It's developing a new company and keeping it afloat that requires much more skill and ability.

At the moment, there is the myth of the successful. You can look at a lot of the business models that work for large companies and made them successful. Problem is, you don't hear about any of the companies that tried to emulate that model and failed.


Just as Kazikli points out, greater responsibilities are usually not only related to managing budgets and spending tax-dollars. There are other administrative/executive aspects, too. And it seems to me that if a candidate's history reveals a certain ineptitude or history of failures with regard to problem-solving or resolving the crises that must be expected to occur within the pervue of a lower office (such as a city mayor who wants to be governor, or governor who wants to be Pesident) then that is a key indicator of what we could expect from that candidate if we put her into a job with greater responsbilities.

The thing is, society will run itself as it always has run itself. Governmental policies can have an effect and the key to good government is discerning what has positive aspects and what has negative aspects, and how the negative impacts can be removed or minimised and turned into positives, for the collective good.