Donald Curtis: Responsibility and Its Avoidance: Essays in Public Management and Governance. Matador, Leicestershire, UK, 2017, 378 pp., ISBN 978 1788035 422, £17.99
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1801 |
| Date | 01 August 2017 |
| Published date | 01 August 2017 |
| Author | Paul Collins |
BOOK REVIEW
Donald Curtis: Responsibility and Its Avoidance: Essays in Public Management and Governance. Matador, Leicestershire, UK,
2017, 378 pp., ISBN 978 1788035 422, £17.99
Donald Curtis’book on Responsibility and its Avoidance comprises a series of essays written of a number of years. The
book sees “good governance”as the taking of responsibility and “having room (or space) for responsible personal action”
(p.xvi). Chapter 19 on Democracy looks at Europe in Brexit context, followed by Governance beyond Government (Chapter
20) and “Morality”(Chapter 22). In terms of approach, the book comprises a five part structure. Chapter One links each of
the 23 chapters, and the final one draws together common themes. Its cases or experiences are global—from UK to Asia
(including Japan and China.) It takes in Africa (Botswana, South Africa), the Americas and many developing countries
(e g. Nepal).
It is meant to provoke debate and reflection rather than provide any final answers. It is written within various main
perspectives: sociologist/anthropologist (mentors Elinor Ostrom and Mary Douglas), development project manager (at
University of Birmingham) and citizen.
Part I has a management focus, critiquing the NPM school of thought, including contraindications in contract management, the
“Third Way”, best value and competency approaches, with final words about Constitutionalism in UK and responsibilities with the
nation state; Part II devotes itself to different ways of breaking the mould and allowing or encouraging responsible innovative
action, including performance management in University governance; Part III follows with two case studies of social policy
disasters in UK so-called child care; Part IV touches on big questions about state, local government and super-state: “whither
the state”, new starting points, amongst others; Part V pen-ultimately explores how in our complex world people in general as well
as the author in particular are challenged by a nascent feeling of responsibility to be active and engaged citizens, yet most times fail.
There are many figures, but one I find most instructive is 11 called “Power and responsibility in defining the common or
public good.
Significantly, quoting Rowntree, Curtis stresses on p.376: “self-worth, shared values and dignity”and argues that we should
“dissolve our self-deception about the kind of world we have allowed it to develop, faced with untruthfulness, fear and
resentment (drivers of Brexit?) and we now need to get back to models of human identity.”Thus, the search for truth is
paramount but with recognition of the realities of power. As he argues on p.360, we need “reflections and light”(and not just
heat) “otherwise what is becomes a tyranny”. A point of interest for me (p.362) is about “how does heritage bear upon what we
do?”Heritage ideas about governance span the Ancient Greeks to China (Confucius), as he reminds us.
Three of the book’s key learning areas and points (“Reflections on Reflections”(pp. 360–362)) are:
1) How is governance or public management influenced by contingent circumstances? (e.g. IT and media)
2) Does a search for high principle (accountability, transparency) improve governance or is honest intent and personal intent
and commitment to finding the public good a surer way to betterment (and I would add to the last, “what makes people
honest”?) Curtis rightly refers to the role of heritage here.
3) Does it take a crisis, a looming public “bad”to concentrate minds, to refocus actions on the potential good, or to turn
attention from personal gain towards the gain that can only be achieved if shared?
The back cover reminds us of the anxious times we live in and rightly commends the book as a useful contribution to
understanding the dynamic processes through struggle for a “liveable”society in terms of environment, stable trade, competent
governance and security.
On the positive side, Curtis has thus provided a useful addition to recent stimulating literature, notably Millbank and Pabst on
The Politics of Virtue: Post-Liberalism and the Human Future.He has also carried forward in relevant domains earlier debates in
PAD about reflexivity.
Its limits are that it is not a classic text or systematic engagement with the literature, but a series of experience-based
reflections and raise questions and do not prescribe. In doing so draws on experience in the major constituencies of
PAD. It is probably therefore only for the discerning reader. And it has relevance to China where a million copy best seller
was published in 2009 by Yu Dan called: “Confucius from the Heart: Ancient Wisdom for Today’s World.”(Dan, 2009).
Confucius in respect of some of his thought is of course non regime threatening in its stress on respect for authority. On the
other hand, and this is where an appeal is universal, it emphasises trust of the common people (who must also have belief
public administration and development
Public Admin. Dev. 37, 227–228 (2017)
Published online in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.1801
Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
To continue reading
Request your trial