Overview

I believe government by performance can eventually revolutionize every aspect of the way government works, the way power flows, and the way the people and the government relate to each other, but I know that's way too much to ask for in one jump, so it is just as well that government by performance can be introduced one small step at a time, and refined and improved as we go along. Here are the stages I envision today:

1. A pilot project starts the process. In this example, we see how government by performance can be applied to a federal crime bill.
2. More projects follow, each one applying the government by performance principles that worked so well in the original pilot project.
3. The next step is to realize that individual projects don't really make sense, so the performance based projects are all merged into a single program, and we are really on the road to full blown government by performance.
4. Transformation of old programs and bringing them all under the government by performance umbrella is the last major hurdle.
5. Government by performance is now a reality, taxpayers believe their taxes are being spent wisely, citizens trust their government to do the best possible job, elections are civil and are about issues people can understand, ordinary citizens are more powerful than special interests, all children are polite and respectful, all marriages are happy, everyone is rich, ... (OK, I exaggerated a bit :-).

If you have followed all this, you are probably thinking government by performance can't possibly be this good. There are problems and obstacles it can't overcome and there will be new things that can go wrong no one can see today. You are almost certainly correct, but I believe the problems with government by performance will not be nearly as severe as the problems we have with the mess government is today. For a discussion of some of the problems I can anticipate, follow this link.

[Back to Homepage] [Back to Politics]