Page 190 - The Drucker Lectures

Reinventing Government: The Next Phase [ 171

about mission. But it is asking questions, so far, about specific pro-
grams. It does not, it seems to me, ask the question: “If you had no
Department of Agriculture, would we now start one?” I suspect—
and I hope you don’t mind my saying something so nasty—that
the great majority of the American public today would answer
that question with a loud “no.” What do we need a Department of
Agriculture for when farmers make up no more than 3 percent of
the population, and when farm production does not contribute a
great deal more to the gross national product of the country? Does
it really require a separate department? These are the questions
that have to be asked. If they are not taken seriously, we will, in a
few years substitute the meat ax for thinking. We will not reinvent
government. We will severely damage it.
Let me say again that what you have accomplished is remark-
able and important. It is the first step. It is time to start work on
the next ones. Your success has shown that it can be done. It also
shows, and shows convincingly, that both making continuous
improvement a habit and truly “reinventing government,” rather
than patching it, must be done.

From a speech given to federal officials in Washington as part of the National
Performance Review, led by Vice President Al Gore.