The common phrase, government should run like a business evokes powerful ideas: It is a mantra. This article considers the layers of connotation contained in this mantra, noting first that comparisons between government and business is a classic and constant theme in public administration. In recent literature, the theme and focus of business-government comparisons has shifted to modeling government after the market ideas of business. This article adds to this discussion by considering formal constitutive factors present in three basic business forms—the sole proprietor, the partnership, and the corporation. The article further asks whether any of these business forms provides useful models for government. A fundamental concern is conceptualizing government within the context of America’s business mythology that echoes in the mantra, “government should run like a business.”
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