Seeing the water: Three great books for contemporary public administration
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Author | Camilla Stivers |
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12806 |
BOOK REVIEW
Seeing the water: Three great books
for contemporary public administration
The most significant facts about any era to subsequent generations are likely to be precisely the ones
accepted as unquestioningly as the fish accepts water (Waldo 1948, p. 4).
Since its inception, the organized study of public administration (PA) has aimed at improving government agency
performance by producing scientific truths, the usefulness of which is taken mostly for granted. Beyond this thrust,
broadly speaking, “there is no shared understanding of what PA is,”internationally, academically, or practically
(Hustedt et al. 2020, p. 130). The very lack of a common paradigm is a cross-national complaint. At the risk of pro-
ducing yet another such “belly-button piece”(Raadschelders 2011, p. 917), I venture to say that what prevails today,
in the United States and elsewhere, is neglect of what Dwight Waldo once called the “water”: the larger context, the
world, in which the phenomenon public administration and those that study it “swim.”
Whether or not they directly addressed public administration, the greatest modern thinkers pondered the politi-
cal, economic, and cultural environment in which it plays a central role. My sense of the field today is that quantita-
tive empiricism for the sake of improved management has obscured how public administration itself and “PA,”the
scholarly field, are being transformed by historic forces. Unless we question the historical development and current
context of PA, including not only rationalization itself but neoliberalism, globalization, and technological change, no
amount of micro-adjustment in bureaucratic techniques for the sake of results will save us from what Max Weber
thought of as the fate of modern societies: “Not summer's bloom lies ahead of us, but rather a polar night of icy dark-
ness and hardness, no matter which group may triumph externally now”(Gerth & Mills 1946, p. 128).
Occasional PA scholars take a wider viewpoint; Waldo himself did so. Arguing that public administration is
not just management techniques but a political philosophy, he described historical andcultural trends that shaped
American public administration: the closing of the frontier, America as a “business civilization,”theriseofthe
modern corporation, industrialization, urbanization, and professionalization. He characterized its ideology as fa ith
in democracy, scien ce, “the moral impera tives of ‘the facts,’” “belief in progre ss,”,and“the gospel of efficiency”
(Waldo 1948, ch. 1).
Guy Adams (1992) built on Waldo's line of argument with the blunt claim that PA is “enthralled with modernity”:
it values a scientific-analytical mindset, expertise, and progress through technology. He argued that the field, con-
fined in this way, has failed to examine its historical roots and so cannot learn from them.
New public management (NPM) and its quantitative orthodoxy only deepened the already taken-for-granted
quality of PA's norm al science. With exceptions (no tably Hibou 2015), the contextu al forces Weber thought indis-
pensable are still neglected, and his sense of the importance of history remains a debt unpaid. My recommended
books, each in its way, serve the field's need to mobilize a stronger sense of the politics, economics, history, and
cultural dynamics shaping public administration and its research enterprise “behind our backs.”The case for this
approach expands below. The three selected authors are such masters that virtually anything they wrote will be
enlightening. My c hoices are guided by r elevance to PA schola rship. In each instan ce, I suggest additi onal
readings.
Received: 3 November 2021 Accepted: 5 November 2021
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12806
Public Admin. 2022;100:161–168. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 161
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting