Prime ministers, unwittingly or not, have unleashed powerful forces when they told government managers to embrace private-sector management practices while leaving their accountability requirements intact

In an excerpt from his new book 'Government: Have Presidents and Prime Ministers Misdiagnosed the Patient?', Donald Savoie says a misdiagnosis of problems in the public service has led to prime ministers and presidents debasing these institutions.

Prime ministers did not make government less of a political institution by centralizing more and more political power into their own hands and offices. Rather, they have made government operations even more political and, at the same time, eroded further the efficacy of government, writes Donald Savoie.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY DONALD SAVOIE

June 27, 2022

Presidents and prime ministers, in four countries with different political institutions, came to power with easy slogans: doing more with less; deliverology; joined-up government; empowering managers; drain the swamp; fix bureaucracy; and the list goes on. But once in office, their focus quickly shi...

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