The Need for Good Governance.

For some time in Washington there has been this ideological notion that government is bad. This idea came into the main with Ronald Reagan who said that government wasn't the solution but the problem. Five years ago the ideologues that believe this took control of Washington and the federal government. And in that time they have managed to make their ideology reality.

Hurricane Katrina made us aware of the importance and necessity for a central government, as a central command system. However, the present government failed in its mission of oversight. But instead of acknowledging this failure of government, the ideologues said, see, we told you so. They told you that you can't or shouldn't depend on government in a pinch.

How convenient for the government haters. First they gut the government and then fill it with incompetent people and then tell us that they were right from the beginning. Government does stink. They did accomplish their self-fulfilling prophecy. Government stinks when you deliberately make it stink.

Government haters have told us that the private sector can do things better than the government can. Ironically they used Hurricane Katrina as an example. They point to the great effort Wal-Mart has made in giving people the basics. Wal-Mart made heroic efforts with truck loads and truck loads of stuff to save people as did other companies. However, what companies can do on their own is limited. They don't have the overview the government has. In the final analysis it is government that is needed to orchestrate and coordinate the momentous undertaking of infrastructure rebuilding.

The problem with companies doing the government's job is that self-interest eventually takes over and they may abandon the task. Companies can lose interest in a venture like rescuing and providing for the needy because there is no money to be made in it. Sometimes they go bankrupt and can't finish the task, so the government has to take over. Governments don't have financial investors and share holders who expect a profit at the end of the day. Governments have only the voters to answer to.

If the private sector and corporations are able to help and contribute we should remember who initially made it possible for them to do it and profit. It is government that created and maintains the environment in which companies can legitimately thrive. Without government it would be a free-for-all, an environment that eventually even companies couldn't survive in. Government is what keeps them, as best it can, being good corporate citizens, so they can benefit us all.

Corporations are not necessarily accountable. And we are not really surprised when they are not. But governments should be, especially in a democracy. However, the present government has decidedly been unaccountable and it can be because it has outflanked and marginalized the opposition. Also, in the past the opposition has been too timid to criticize. We should learn something from this.

One thing the Katrina catastrophe has shown us is that we need two healthy sectors to prolong live and society, the private sector and the public sector, working together in tandem. They keep each other in check and balance out each other. Government, though, because of their breadth and scope, should be first among equals.