RE‐EXAMINING THE NORMATIVE FOUNDATIONS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS: PUBLIC SERVICE, CITIZENSHIP, AND DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE
| Date | 01 September 2016 |
| Published date | 01 September 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12241 |
| Author | CURTIS VENTRISS |
doi: 10.1111/padm.12241
BOOK REVIEW ESSAY
RE-EXAMINING THE NORMATIVE FOUNDATIONS
OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS:
PUBLIC SERVICE, CITIZENSHIP, AND DEMOCRATIC
GOVERNANCE
CURTIS VENTRISS
Integrative Process: Follettian Thinking from Ontology to Administration
Margaret Stout and Jeannie Love
Process Century Press, 2015, 337 pp., $20.00 (pb), ISBN: 9781940447063
The New Public Service: Serving, not Steering
Janet Denhardt andRobert Denhardt
Routledge, 2015, 256 pp., $49.95 (pb), ISBN: 9781138891258
Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy
Tina Nabatchi and Matt Leighninger
Jossey-Bass, 2015, 351 pp., $80.00 (hb), ISBN: 9781118688533
In 1936, John Dos Passos, the novelist, in letter to a colleague, explained the merit of theo-
retical thinking as ‘the invention of new ways of seeing things’ (p. 105). In the next breath,
he warned his colleague to always remember that ‘the greatest enemy of intelligence is
complacency’ (p. 105). While Passos’ insight is of value to any academic discipline, his
point is particularly salient for pubic administration given that the eld has been accused
of being rather reluctant to question the prevailing status quo (Ramos 1981; Hummel 2007).
Whether this is true is certainty debatable. At any rate, if we take Passos’ advice seriously
(as we should), it nudges us to critically examine the underlying presuppositions of public
administration (and public policy), and, dare we say,of any political system itself in order
to thwart a theoretical drift towards intellectual complacency.
This essay discusses three recent books that (re-)examine the normative foundations of
public administration and the role of citizens in public affairs. For purposes of this discus-
sion let us start with the following questions: what if, for all the normative implications of
these well-intentioned books as well as the theoretical garments these authors have clothed
their analysis in, they would do little to delimit the inuence of market values on public
affairs, and, more importantly, curb the power of key actors and organizations who can
skew the policy process away from the public interest? And, what if, for all the theoretical
Curtis Ventrissis at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, USA.
Public Administration Vol.94, No. 3, 2016 (839–845)
© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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