Why We Should Abandon the Misconceived Quest to Reconcile Public Entrepreneurship with Democracy: A Response to Bellone and Goerl's "Reconciling Public Entrepreneurship and Democracy"

Abstract

C arl J. Bellone and George Frederick Goerl (1992) build an intriguing case for public entrepreneurship. By strategically structuring an argument in the tradition of the bureaucracy/democracy debate, they attempt to legitimize the concept of public entrepreneurship by asserting that it can be reconciled with democratic politics and administration.1 Bellone and Goerl's argument presents the underlying values and characteristics of public entrepreneurship (autonomy, a personal vision of the future, secrecy, and risktaking) as being at odds with the values of democratic politics and administration (accountability, citizen participation, open policy-making processes, and stewardship behavior). Bellone and Goerl suggest that, although these value orientations appear incompatible, this should not be interpreted to mean that the conflict created by the different value orientations cannot be resolved. Indeed, Bellone and Goerl assert that public entrepreneurship can be squared with democratic principles if it is civicregarding.