Administering prevention or administering atrocities? Public affairs education in dark times
| DOI | 10.1177/0144739418824623 |
| Date | 01 July 2019 |
| Author | Susan Appe,Nadia Rubaii,Sebastian Lippez-De Castro |
| Published date | 01 July 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Administering prevention
or administering atrocities?
Public affairs education
in dark times
Nadia Rubaii
Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Binghamton University, State University of
New York, USA
Susan Appe
Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, State University of New
York, USA
Sebastian Lippez-De Castro
College of Community and Public Affairs, Binghamton University, State University of New York,
USA; Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia
Abstract
Despite repeated calls to temper the bureaucratic ethos and its associated process-
oriented pathologies with more of a democratic ethos grounded in normative values and
the public interest, the practice, research, and teaching of public administration con-
tinues to largely perpetuate the former. In this paper we build upon the work of Camila
Stivers’ book Governance in Dark Times and Nabatchi and colleagues’ subsequent call to
search for opportunities to better address issues of war, terrorism, climate change,
economic calamity, refugee crises, and other atrocities which characterize dark times.
We focus our attention on one specific issue within this realm, that of genocides and
mass atrocities, as a way to illustrate that public servants—from street-level bureaucrats
through high-level policy makers—may be part of the problem or part of the solution.
We assert the responsibility of public affairs educators to ensure that their students are
prepared to administer prevention or we risk that traditional administrative pathologies
may lead them to inadvertently engage in administering atrocities. We position our
overarching proposal in the context of fundamental public service values as well as the
Corresponding author:
Nadia Rubaii, Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Binghamton University, State University of
New York, PO Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA.
Email: nadia.rubaii@binghamton.edu; Telephone: þ607-777-9172
Teaching Public Administration
2019, Vol. 37(2) 175–198
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0144739418824623
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United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 16. We also
align our more specific recommendations with the Network of Schools of Public Policy,
Affairs, and Administration’s universal competencies and the core content domains of
the Atlas for Public Management.
Keywords
Sustainable development goals, NASPAA c ompetencies, genocide and mass atrocity,
dark times, administrative pathologies
Introduction
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call upon governments of
the world to address the most pressing issues of our time, and this demands that public
servants be prepared to govern in “dark times.” The term, attributed to Hannah Arendt
(1968) and elevated within the public administration community by Camila Stivers
(2008), encompasses issues of war, terrorism, climate change, economic calamity,
refugee crises, genocides and other atrocities. In the wake of Minnowbrook III and
building upon the work of Arendt and Stivers, Nabatchi and colleagues (2011) lament the
lack of attention to issues of governance in dark times and call for a debate within the
field to identify opportunities to better address these issues. In this paper we strive to
respond to that call while examining the challenges of doing so. We examine one par-
ticular issue and focus on one strategy for improving governance: our focus is on gen-
ocides and mass atrocities, and the role of education in preparing public administrators to
govern in the interests of prevention.
Despite the promise of “never again” made by world leaders in the wake of the
Holocaust, people around the world continue to be victims of genocide, ethnic cleansing,
crimes againsthumanity, and other mass atrocities. Mass atrocities demand more attention
not only from government officials, but also from those who teach in public administra-
tion. If we are to effectively prevent such atrocities, we must explore why public
administration repeatedly fails to prevent or mitigate genocides, what administrative
pathologies contribute to such atrocities, and what can be done to ensure that bureaucrats
and policy-make rs of all levels are more e ffective prevention agents. Genocid es and other
mass atrocities epitomize darkness and they challenge democratic institutions, human
rights principles and state capacity. Despite that they are not part of the curriculum in
mainstream public administration programs aroundthe world. If we do not educate public
administration and public policy students about the historical and current examples of
genocide and mass atrocity (GMA)—including those most relevant to their own national
contexts—how can we expect to prevent future atrocities? In keeping with Greene’s
(1997) portrayal of teaching as a potential “light in dark times” we make the case that
public affairs programs everywhere have a responsibility to incorporate content related to
GMA with particularattention to the tools of preventionavailable to public administrators,
and we offer suggestions for how to incorporate essential knowledge and skills within
Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Public Policy (MPP) programs.
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