Beyond Public Administration: Contemplating and Nudging Government-in-Context PDF
Preview Beyond Public Administration: Contemplating and Nudging Government-in-Context
“A brilliantly conceived, much needed manifesto! Informed by the latest theory concepts and solidly grounded in practical experience, this book provides a vivid account of the problematic situation in 21st-century America and its institutions of governance – and Farmer, an ex-public administratorandeminent scholar,knowswhattodo about it.Thebook is relevant to both the public administration community (currently under attack as the ‘deep state’) as well as concerned citizens.” — Orion White, Professor Emeritus, Virginia Tech University “Efficiency requires consistent patterns; effectiveness requires breaking patterns; Farmer critiques American governance and lays out a significant role for P.A. in rebuilding the system. Wisdom on reforming US govern- ancefromaformerpractitionerwhommanyscholarsregardastheleading contemporary theorist in P.A.” — Bob Cunningham, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Beyond Public Administration How can public administration (P.A.) nudge government to govern funda- mentally better in terms of policy? How critical is P.A. contemplation and nudges – prods, shoves or hammer blows – togovernment-in-context? Inthisbook,DavidJohnFarmerarguesthatgovernment-in-contextrefers togovernment-in-totality,towhatgovernsevenifnotcalledgovernmentand to what constrains government action. Constricting contextual features are infiltration, exfiltration and post-truth, raising questions relating to democ- racy.Infiltrationintogovernmentistheactionofgainingaccessthatbenefits big corporations, theirowners and billionaires; findings are that it also mal- nudges government action through such elements as big money, lobbying, tax breaks and embrace of the free market. Reacting to factors like growing income inequality, what is explained as exfiltration occurs for middle- and lower-incomepeople. Post-truth is notedas the OxfordDictionary’swordof the year for 2016, describing people concerned less with truths than with opinions.Thebookanalyzesthreepractical“hammerblow”and 18“shove” nudges to contradict the mal-nudges. Beyond Public Administration will be of interest to P.A. scholars and graduate students, more specifically those interested in critical, normative, orinterpretivescholarshipfocusedonvariousaspectsofP.A.theory,govern- ance, and practical management. DavidJohnFarmerisProfessorEmeritusofPhilosophyandPublicAffairsat the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, Virginia CommonwealthUniversity(VCU).PriortojoiningVCUin1980,Dr.Farmer served as abudgetanalyst,an administrative analystand aneconomist. He also served as director of operations management, special assistant to the New York City police commissioner and as a division director for the National Institute of Justice in the U.S. Department of Justice. Farmer has authoredsixbooksand85refereedarticlesandbookchapters,andservedas amemberoffoureditorialboards. Beyond Public Administration Contemplating and Nudging Government-in-Context David John Farmer Firstpublished2020 byRoutledge 52VanderbiltAvenue,NewYork,NY10017 andbyRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©2020Taylor&Francis TherightofDavidJohnFarmertobeidentifiedasauthorofthis workhasbeenassertedbyhiminaccordancewithsections77 and78oftheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedor reproducedorutilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic, mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownorhereafterinvented, includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinanyinformation storageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfrom thepublishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybe trademarksorregisteredtrademarks,andareusedonlyfor identificationandexplanationwithoutintenttoinfringe. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Acatalogrecordforthistitlehasbeenrequested ISBN:978-0-367-19148-1(hbk) ISBN:978-0-429-20073-1(ebk) TypesetinTimesNewRoman bySwales&Willis,Exeter,Devon,UK This book is dedicated to Dr. Rosemary L. Farmer, with much love and gratitude. Contents Preface x 1 Introduction 1 2 PublicAdministrationinGovernmentality:ABiggerHelper 16 3 ContemplationandBeyond:TheBiggerPicture 27 4 Context:Infiltration 42 5 Context:Exfiltration 53 6 Context:Post-Truth 66 7 Government-in-Context:PracticalNudges 76 8 Epilogue 103 Index 112
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