John D. Donahue is a GOVERNING contributor. He is the Raymond Vernon Lecturer in Public Policy, and faculty chair of the Harvard Kennedy School Case Program and the SLATE teaching initiative. His teaching, writing, and research mostly deal with public sector reform and with the distribution of public responsibilities across levels of government and sectors of the economy, including extensive work with the Harvard Kennedy School-Harvard Business School joint degree program. He has written or edited ten books, including "Disunited States" (1997), "The Privatization Decision" (1989, with four translations 1990-92) and "The Warping of Government Work" (2008). He served in the first Clinton administration as an Assistant Secretary, and then as Counselor to the Secretary of Labor.  A native of Indiana, he holds a BA from Indiana University and an MPP and Ph.D from Harvard.