Governing Like Mick Jagger

Paul C. Light, author of The True Size of Government and other bestsellers, wrote a nice piece on Governing.com 's daily email blast today, urging state governments to be more like the Rolling Stones.  In what way, you ask?  Even though anyone who saw the Stones perform at this year's Super Bowl would swear these guys are all in their eighties, the group still rocks on, to the tune of scores of concerts before millions of fans each year.  Their ability to organize concert dates and set up their massive sets is so impressive that the US Air Force is using them as a benchmark for reducing their average time to battle.  In the same way, urges Light, state governments should be nimble, decentralized, and innovative.

 

Easier said than done.  There's a reason government is synonymous with bureaucracy.  Governments usually are stuck with the tasks no one else can do because they lack the scale, sophistication, or motivation.  What governments have to deal with are massive amounts of transactions and impossibly complex problems, requiring incredibly expensive interventions.  The Rolling Stones -- they just have to sing their same old songs.

 

But just because governments have to deal with all these complicated issues doesn't mean they can't incorporate some of the private sector's best practices.  In his column, Light offers a number of suggestions for state governments in particular to inject some nimbleness into their operations, like governors who are good delegators, rainy day funds that seed innovation, and staff trained in multiple areas so as to better respond in situations of chaos and crisis.  State governments, rock on.