Joe Katzman of Winds of Change comments on a Business Week article on newly-elected German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Davos economic forum:
Like Canadia’s new PM Stephen Harper, who faces a related situation, Markel believes that incremental changes, pursued consistently over time, will get her country where it needs to go. I tend to suggest that the first vitiates the second by mobilizing opposition without delivering the associated benefits of real reform.
To paraphrase a certain US Democrat: “Ms. Merkel, you are no Margaret Thatcher.” Having said that, she won’t be completely useless, either.
The opposition doesn’t have to be mobilized: it’s already in place and it’s in the governments of their countries.
As Joe notes both Canada and Germany have large civil bureaucracies who will fight any reforms tooth and nail both from conviction and to preserve their jobs. And they’re perfectly position to subvert reform: they’re already inside.
Back in the 1960’s IBM pursued a strategy of cultivating data processing departments by trainiing and certifying data processing managers and, consequently, building a cadre of inside salesmen for IBM equipment. “No one ever got fired for recommending IBM.” They’re not the only ones. Apple did the same thing in the educational market in the 1980’s with their giveaway programs and Microsoft has been very successful, first by cultivating developers and later with their certification programs. These are all good strategies for cultivating groups of loyal followers who will reliably recommend their patrons’ products.
We have the same problem in the United States government, too, in the Departments of Defense and State and the CIA. All have large established bureaucracies who’ll go to great lengths to fight reform and, consequently, retain their jobs. This is particularly notable in State and the CIA who seem to be waging an insurgency against the current Administration (“the temporary help”).
