“To me, there are multifarious forces at work in government departments which are different from those in private business; the responsibility to and necessary interference of Congress, the responsibility to the President, to defined over-all controls, have little parallel in private business. The power politics of government departments are radically different from the power politics of private companies. The existence of pipe lines into Congress strengthens the bureaucracy against the chief executive of the particular subdivision of government. It may strengthen it against the President of the United States or Congress itself. Dimock himself points out how easily government bureaucracies develop organized opposition to policies involving change. This opposition may in substance, though not in form, sabotage all change which appears to threaten the security of the bureaucracy. Power politics, of course, exists in large private companies; but the urge to expand functions and simultaneously to defend what exists seems to me radically less in the case of well-run, large, private industry than in the case of big departments of the government. The quantitative difference becomes a qualitative change.”

"Governmental and Business Executives", 1946

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To me, there are multifarious forces at work in government departments which are different from those in private busine…" by Wallace Brett Donham?
Wallace Brett Donham photo
Wallace Brett Donham 11
American academic 1877–1954

Related quotes

Henry Hazlitt photo
Joan Robinson photo
Henri Fayol photo
Robert LeFevre photo
Irving Kristol photo

“Power breeds responsibilities, in international affairs as in domestic -- or even private. To dodge or disclaim these responsibilities is one form of the abuse of power.”

Irving Kristol (1920–2009) American columnist, journalist, and writer

New York Times Magazine, May 12, 1968.
1960s

Calvin Coolidge photo
Newton Lee photo

“The U. S. government needs to learn from successful private businesses that run an effective and efficient operation in serving their customers and outwitting their competitors.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness (2nd Edition), 2015

John F. Kennedy photo

“The final and best means of strengthening demand among consumers and business is to reduce the burden on private income and the deterrents to private initiative which are imposed by our present tax system.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1962, Address and Question and Answer Period at the Economic Club of New York (549)

Related topics