Corporate Thinking in Government: A Recipe for Disaster

Conservative policymakers have promoted the idea that government should operate like a corporation. However, corporate-style governance often leads to public harm, weakened accountability, and the deterioration of essential services.

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Corporate Thinking in Government: A Recipe for Disaster

For decades, conservative policymakers and business-friendly technocrats have pushed the idea that government should operate like a corporation. They claim that the private sector’s efficiency, cost-cutting strategies, and focus on the bottom line could eliminate public institutions' bureaucratic inefficiencies. But history tells a different story—one where corporate-style governance often leads to public harm, weakened accountability, and the deterioration of essential services.

Flint Water Crisis: When Cost-Cutting Trumps Public Safety

The Flint water crisis is one of the most tragic examples of corporate thinking infiltrating government decision-making. In 2014, Michigan’s state-appointed emergency managers, acting under a cost-reduction mandate, decided to…