I think many of the factors which can make public sector entities less efficient - e.g. harder to get rid of underperforming employees, fewer institutional rewards for reducing unnecessary expenditures - apply broadly across countries.

I think something Germany and the US have in common, compared to many other countries, is less blatant corruption in government, due to strong laws against it.

> I think many of the factors which can make public sector entities less efficient - e.g. harder to get rid of underperforming employees, fewer institutional rewards for reducing unnecessary expenditures - apply broadly across countries

It's much easier to remove a Federal Employee in the US compared to Germany. The "give 3 documents" rule makes it easy to not have to deal with lengthy arbitration. At worst, it's comparable to private sector hiring/firing rules in Germany.

Furthemore, hiring practices for federal jobs are much more decentralized in the US compared to Germany.

And finally, the entire corpora of statutes, legislation, and administrative policies in the US is significantly different from that in Germany, such that any surface level similarities are basically convergent evolution.

I'm sure they are. Yet the arguments for why government is doing just fine and large corporations are at least as bad are very similar, so there seem to be some similarities as well.

> so there seem to be some similarities as well.

Any similarity is only at the surface level, because the entire corpora of case law, administrative procedure acts, and past rulings are going to cause entirely distinct dysfunctions.

Both Gonorrhea and the Plague create bubous, but their causes and cures are entirely different.

It's the same with reforming organizational culture.

And yet the organizational outcomes are surprisingly similar when you zoom in. Maybe culture is the only thing that matters and incentives don't at all, but I doubt it.