The clearest case against [public unions’] flagrant distortion of American democracy is made in a new book Not Accountable by Philip K. Howard, a lawyer who has been a lonely voice for common sense governance since his brilliant book, The Death of Common Sense, in 1994. … If you are interested in your progeny not having their intellects stunted by mediocre martinets, you should read this book.

Amendment 1 to the Illinois Constitution, approved by referendum in November, was promoted as guaranteeing basic fairness for all workers. But it does something else — by prohibiting any new laws that might impinge on worker collective bargaining, Amendment 1 disempowers future elected officials from changing how government operates.

Two public schools in Manhattan illustrate the high stakes of a political choice that the nation, and many states and municipalities, must reconsider. In 2019, Success Academy Harlem 2 charter school ranked 37th among New York state’s 2,413 public elementary schools, one of which, PS 30, had only about a third as many pupils as Harlem 2, spent twice as much per pupil and ranked 1,694th. PS 30 and Harlem 2 operate in the same building.

With more than a quarter century of pondering government delays and dysfunction, Howard was bound at some point to home in on collective bargaining. He began to see it as one of the biggest impediments to productivity and reform.

“The abuse of power by public employee unions is the main story of public failure in America,” he writes in Not Accountable.

Every public dollar involves a moral choice. A dollar squandered is a dollar not available to care for someone who is needy or hungry. Inefficient work rules are like burning money. It should be unacceptable that trash collection in New York and other big cities costs twice what private carters charge. The purpose of government is to serve the public—as the Constitution provides, to “promote the general Welfare.” But public unions have a different agenda.

Governors and mayors no longer have authority to fix broken schools, fire bad cops or manage public services responsibly. Public unions have a stranglehold over the operating machinery of government. A governor or mayor comes into office with his or her hands tied by detailed collective bargaining agreements and other operating controls. So what’s the point of democracy? To elect officials who are figureheads?

No society, organization, or group of people can function effectively without accountability. Accountability is essential for mutual trust. The prospect of accountability is the backdrop for a culture of shared energy and values. "A social organism of any sort whatever, large or small, is what it is because each member proceeds to his own duty," philosopher William James noted, "with a trust that the other members will simultaneously do theirs."