Table Of ContentRefoundin g
Democrati c
Publi c
Administratio n
Refoundin g
Democrati c
Publi c
â
Administratio n
Moder n Paradoxes ,
Postmoder n Challenge s
Edited by
Gary L. Wamsley
James Å Wolf
SAGE Publication s
International Educational and Professional Publisher
Thousand Oaks London New Delhi
Copyright © 1996 by Sage Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permis-
sion in writing from the publisher.
For information address:
SAGE Publications, Inc.
I 2455 Teller Road
^ Thousand Oaks, California 91320
E-mail: [email protected] m
SAGE Publications Ltd.
6 Bonhill Street
London EC2A4PU
United Kingdom
SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
M-32 Market
Greater Kailash I
New Delhi 110 048 India
Printed in the United States of America
Librar y of Congress Cataloging-in-Publicatio n Data
Main entry under title:
Refounding democrati c public administration : modern paradoxes ,
postmoder n challenges / editors, Gary L. Wamsley, James F. Wolf,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographica l references.
ISBN 0-8039-5976-1 (cloth: acid-free paper).—ISB N 0-8039-5977-X
(pbk.: acid-free paper)
1. Public administration . 2. Democracy. I. Wamsley, Gary L.
Ð. Wolf, James F..
JF1351.R425 1996
350—dc20 95-50240
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
97 98 99 00 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Sage Productio n Editor: Astrid Virding
Sage Typesetter : Marion S. Warre n
Sage Cover Designer: Candice Harma n
Dedicatio n
^ In the last year and a half of his life Norton Long became intensely
=
m m m involved in the Refounding project. He left his retirement home in the
Berkshires of Massachusetts and set off for Blacksburg with some of his
belongings and his bulldog in a station wagon. He was in his eighties at the
time; rather advanced years for such an adventure. He took up residence and
began teaching at Virginia Tech's Center for Public Administration and Policy
(CPAP) on a voluntary basis.
Norton became a respected and valued colleague at CPAP. He took great
delight in teaching a course that put students in the field analyzing the causes
of a fatal mine disaster in southwest Virginia, in organizing a conference on
the importance of the burgeoning economies of the Pacific Rim to the Ameri-
can future, and in arguing with his colleagues on anything from perverse
incentives in public organizations to the course of conflict in the Balkans and
American policy there.
He involved himself enthusiastically in the development of this volume.
From numerous discussions, we all assumed that he was working on a
manuscript that would call for reestablishment of the Office of Management
and Budget as the kind of office concerned, not with the partisan political
well-being of the incumbent president, but rather with the well-being and
interest of the institution of the presidency and of the government as a whole.
Every government ought to have such an office, he argued, and the old
Bureau of the Budget had in fact been conducted in such a manner. Certainly
we could resonate with the notion that such an office with such a mission
should exist. Some of us expressed doubt that such an agency could be
resurrected or find a constituency for itself in the present context. Those of us
who expressed ^uch doubts were subjected to withering criticism for our lack
of imagination and our loss of idealism. We were assuredly vulnerable on
those points, and assumed that he was working to answer some of our concerns
in his chapter.
We were, therefore, surprised when his son brought us the nearly com-
pleted manuscript on which he had been working on the day he died. He had
told his son it was for a forthcoming volume, which we presume was this one.
Our surprise was that the manuscript was not about a "refound B.O.B." but
the pernicious effects of perverse incentives in public organizations. We have
chosen not to include the manuscript and to seek publication of it elsewhere.
We do so not because it is without merit but rather because it is not typical of
what we are developing in this volume, or, for that matter, what he seemed to
be developing in his discussions. Instead it is vintage Norton Long and could
have been written anywhere in the middle of his long career.
That editorial matter aside, this volume is dedicated to his memory and
as an acknowledgment of his profound impact on the works of all of us and
on the field of public administration.
Content s
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction: Can a High-Modern Project
Find Happiness in a Postmodern Era?
Gary L Wamsley and James R Wolf
1. On Governance and Reinventing Government
Richard T. Green and Lawrence Hubbell
2. Fencing in the Inherently Governmental Debate
Larkin Dudley
3. Public-Institutional Processes and Democratic Governance
Joy A. Clay
4. What a Difference a State Makes: Reflections on
Governance in France
John A. Rohr
5. Moving Beyond Prescriptions: Making Sense
of Public Administration Action Contexts
James Å Wolf
6. Administering in the Public Interest:
The Facilitative Role for Public Administrators 168
Thomas J. Barth
7. Postmodernism, Public Administration,
and the Public Interest 198
O. C. McSwite
8. The Public Administration and the
Problem of the Presidency 225
Larry Af. Lane
9. Refusing to Get It Right: Citizenship,
Difference, and the Refounding Project 260
Camilla Stivers
10. Understanding Social Process:
The Key to Democratic Governance 279
Lisa Weinberg
11. The Maturation of Public Administration:
The Search for a Democratic Identity 293
Linda Å Dennard
12. Thinking Government: Bringing Democratic
Awareness to Public Administration 327
John H. Little
13. A Public Philosophy and Ontological Disclosure
as the Basis for Normatively Grounded Theorizing
in Public Administration 351
Gary L. Wamsley
About the Contributors 402
Acknowledgment s
This project builds on the support and works of our colleagues at
w m m m Virginia Tech's Center for Public Administration and Policy during the
past 18 years. They provided the necessary atmosphere of support and chal-
lenge that made it possible for us to sustain the Refounding project. To the
same extent, the ideas and perspectives presented herein were continually
enriched by the stimulation of the students and graduates of the Center. Some
say that students make good classes. We believe that students make us good
teachers and researchers. We appreciate their contribution to our development.
We also acknowledge the contributors of chapters in this volume. All the
writers were either teaching faculty and/or students at the Center for Public
Administration and Policy. We consider ourselves fortunate to be associated
with an institution and group of colleagues where it is even possible to
conceive of a continuing project like the one represented by this book.
Finally, we are both grateful to Monisha Murthi's editorial assistance
during the final compilation of the book. Only someone who completes such
a task or directly benefits from the fruits of editorial assistance can fully
appreciate the significance of such a service.
Gary Wamsley and Jim Wolf
ix
