Richard C. Box - Public Administration and Society: Critical Issues in American Governance

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Public Administration and Society

Public Administration and Society

Critical Issues in American Governance

Third Edition

Richard C. Box

First published 2014 by M.E. Sharpe

Published 2015 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 2014 Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices
No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use of operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Box, Richard C.
Public administration and society : critical issues in American governance / by Richard C. Box. Third edition.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-7656-3534-1 (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN 978-0-7656-3535-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Administrative agenciesUnited StatesHistory. 2. BureaucracyUnited StatesHistory.
3. Public administrationUnited StatesHistory. I. Title.

JK411.B69 2014
351.73--dc23

2013018765

ISBN 13: 9780765635358 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 9780765635341 (hbk)

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CONTENTS

, Frederick Quinn

, W.B. Allen, Gordon Lloyd, and Margie Lloyd

, Alexis de Tocqueville

, Thomas E. McCollough

, Daniel Kemmis

, Richard C. Box

, Dale Krane

, Gary S. Marshall

, Richard J. Stillman II

, Elizabeth Gudrais

, H. George Frederickson

, Richard C. Box

, Richard C. Box

, Mary R. Hamilton

, Richard C. Box

, Claire Mostel

, Claire Mostel

_______________________________

_______________________________

This book is designed as an introduction to the political and economic environment of public administration and its relationship to the daily work of public professionals. Many who teach in public administration find that students have little knowledge of the historical, societal, and structural basis of the American system of government and its effects on key issues facing todays public administrators. This is the specific area of knowledge addressed by the book.

Instead of the emphasis on management topics found in many introductory public administration texts, this book provides a macro-level view of the cultural, political, institutional, and economic context of public administration, within a framework that is historical and critical. This view is grounded in the premise that future leaders in the field may significantly influence governmental policy and its implementation, so they should have broad understanding of matters beyond carrying out micro-level management tasks. The framework is historical because contemporary values and practices have been shaped by past actions; it is critical in bringing to the readers attention the interplay of opposing ideas through time. The book deals with American society and public administration because that is its intended audience and because the context of the public sector in the United States is quite different from that of other nations.

Though the importance of nonprofit and private-sector organizations and citizen efforts in nongovernmental, civil society is recognized, the focus here is on public governance, goal-setting and action potentially affecting all people in a defined geographic area. There is a unique character to a setting in which people act jointly as a nation, state, region, local public agency, or neighborhood, a joint character that makes it unlike other human activities. Given this focus, attention can be directed to understanding factors that shape the work of public organizations and how students and practitioners of public administration can contribute to constructive change.

People become accustomed to their personal and work lives, often doing what needs to be done without thinking too deeply about its meaning. We take for granted the complex web of human organizations, physical structures such as streets, utility systems, and buildings, commercial networks that supply such basics as food, clothing, and an almost infinite variety of other products, and the laws, procedures, and expectations about correct behavior specific to our national culture, that make all this work as well as it does. On occasion, an unusual event, conversation, media presentation, or written material will jolt us out of the routine of daily habit, prompting reexamination of our lives and the society around us.

Another factor leading to unthinking acceptance of the familiar is pressure to conform to the norms of society, making it difficult to question the way things are. Sometimes scholars, the media, or advocates of change bring to our attention fundamental contradictions between our beliefs about such matters as fairness, democracy, or protection of the natural world, and the way organizations and society actually function on a day-to-day basis in relation to treatment of human beings and the physical environment. Though it can be risky for public professionals to call attention to such contradictions, as they advance in their careers and take on broader responsibilities, they may sometimes find it necessary to question the status quo.

An assumption made in this book is that some of its readers are, or will be later in their careers, in a position to influence the course of public-service practice or research, with constructive impacts on the lives of citizens. A crucial skill for those who want to make a difference in the world is critical thought. The term critical is not used here to mean negative or judgmental, but probing and analytical, identifying contradictions between commonly held beliefs and the practices and perspectives we discover in the course of learning. Narratives and readings in this book are intended to facilitate critical, skeptical thought about the uses of power and resources in public-sector governance, giving readers tools for improving citizen self-determination in a democratic society.

Though these materials introduce questions about economic, political, and social systems that may cause some readers discomfort, the objective is not to provoke cynicism about the public sector or a defensive rejection of views that challenge the status quo. Instead, the intent is to give readers a glimpse into the richness of the unique American experiment in

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