Throughout all levels of American government, a shift is taking place from the rigid, wasteful, centralized bureaucracies of the industrial era to the more flexible, entrepreneurial, decentralized government needed to succeed in today's world. This shift has been brought about by an unprecedented, ongoing fiscal crisis that has created a sudden urgency to improve services and heighten productivity with fewer dollars. Entrepreneurial governments are: (1) catalytic, leveraging private-sector actions to solve problems; (2) community owned, empowering families and communities to solve their own problems; (3) competitive, moving away from traditional monopolistic models in education, policing, transportation, etc.; (4) mission driven, developing budget systems and rules that free employees to pursue goals; (5) results oriented, providing incentives for people to succeed rather than fail, measuring outcomes, and rewarding success; (6) customer driven, putting resources directly into the hands of the intended recipients of the service (e.g., job training or child care) so that they can make choices based on quality and price; (7) decentralized, taking advantage of the possibilities afforded by telecommunications advancements to give those laboring in public organizations authority to make their own decisions; and (8) market driven, restructuring the marketplace when necessary to fulfill public purposes. Government is the instrument by which problems are solved collectively; if the instrument is outdated, it is time to remake it. The applicability of these principles to community colleges is discussed briefly. (ECC)