Since the 1960s, hostility and mistrust toward the U.S. government has risen precipitously. At th... more Since the 1960s, hostility and mistrust toward the U.S. government has risen precipitously. At the same time, the field of public administration has wrestled with its own crisis of legitimacy. What is at the root of current antigovernment sentiment? Conventionally, two explanations for this problem persist. Some see it primarily in moral terms, a deficit of Constitutional or democratic values in government. Others emphasize government’s performance failures and managerial inefficiency.
Thomas J. Catlaw departs from both explanations in this groundbreaking study and demonstrates that the current crisis of government originates in the uncritical manner in which we have accepted the idea of “the People.” He contends that this unifying, foundational concept—and the notion of political representation it entails—have failed. While illuminating some of our most pressing social and political problems, Catlaw shows how the idea of the People, far from serving to unify, relies in fact on a distinctive logic of exclusion. True political power is the power to determine what constitutes the normal, natural life of the electorate. Today, the exclusionary practices that once made up or fabricated the People are increasingly contested. In turn, government and political power now appear more invasive, less legitimate, and our shared reality appears more fragmented and disconnected.
In order to address this crisis and reinvigorate democracy, Catlaw argues, we must accept as bankrupt the premise of the People and the idea of representation itself. Fabricating the People boldly proposes post-representational governance that reframes the practice of modern democracy and reinvents the role of public administration.
THEORIES OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Seventh Edition, is a brief, readable overview of public admin... more THEORIES OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Seventh Edition, is a brief, readable overview of public administration theory that presents multiple viewpoints, enabling students to develop their own philosophies of public administration, and helping them relate theory to application. The Seventh Edition incorporates a theme of Governance, which explores the traditions, institutions, and processes that determine how power is exercised, how citizens are given a voice, and how decisions are made on issues of public concern.
Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 2019
Public encounters between street-level bureaucrats and citizens predominantly function through in... more Public encounters between street-level bureaucrats and citizens predominantly function through interpersonal interactions. However, there has been relatively little study of the role of talk, what we refer to as language-in-use, in accomplishing the tasks and related objectives within the encounter. This oversight has limited our understanding of the collaborative, negotiated process of public encounters, rendered citizens mostly invisible, and left unexamined the connection between encounters and outcomes. Drawing on the rich but under-utilized tradition of ethnomethodology, a methodology created for studying routine interactions, we provide an analytical example of the language-in-use in one encounter to demonstrate how ethnomethodology is uniquely appropriate for understanding public encounters. We argue that an ethnomethodological approach illuminates the mechanisms that make some outcomes possible, others improbable, and that these accomplishments are important for understanding a variety of outcomes.
This paper critically examines the ways in which organizational performance and audit practices i... more This paper critically examines the ways in which organizational performance and audit practices intersect with the dynamics of contemporary capitalism, managerialism, and individualism in the workplace to shape the experience of the “postmodern” subject at work. Drawing from Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, the paper argues that the conditions for the contemporary subject are characterized by the declining efficacy of the Symbolic order, which induces the production of people whose identities are fragile and unstable. Paradoxically, this instability emerges at a historical moment at which individuals are commanded to “self-actualize” and to not be limited by authority or tradition. Neoliberalism makes “work” assume particular importance in this project. The paper argues that the decline of the Symbolic, in turn, places a heavy weight on interpersonal relationships in the Imaginary, or among alter-egos, to produce any semblance of a stable identity. Workplace performance measures and audit practices offer seductive points of identification and “quantifiable” stability for the subject in search of her “authentic” self at work in particular. Yet, at the same time, these measures painfully ensnare the subject in external identifications and managerial validation in new, debilitating ways.
This paper critically examines the ways in which organizational performance and audit practices i... more This paper critically examines the ways in which organizational performance and audit practices intersect with the dynamics of contemporary capitalism, managerialism, and individualism to shape the experience of the entrepreneurial, “post-neurotic” subject at work. Drawing from Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, the paper argues that the conditions for the contemporary subject are characterized by the declining efficacy of the Symbolic order, which induces the production of people whose identities are fragile and unstable. Paradoxically, this instability emerges at a historical moment at which individuals are commanded to “self-actualize” and to not be limited by authority or tradition. Neoliberalism makes “Work” assume particular importance in this project. The paper argues that the decline of the Symbolic, in turn, places a heavy weight on interpersonal relationships in the Imaginary, or among alter-egos, to produce any semblance of a stable identity. Workplace performance measures and audit practices offer seductive points of identification and “quantifiable” stability for the subject in search of her “authentic” self at work in particular. Yet, at the same time, these measures painfully ensnare the subject in external identifications and managerial validation in new, constraining ways.
This study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health dataset to evaluate the lon... more This study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health dataset to evaluate the long-term influence of school discipline and security on political and civic participation. We find that young adults with a history of school suspension are less likely than others to vote and volunteer in civic activities years later, suggesting that suspension negatively impacts the likelihood that youth engage in future political and civic activities. These findings are consistent with prior theory and research highlighting the long-term negative implications of punitive disciplinary policies and the role schools play in preparing youth to participate in a democratic polity. We conclude that suspension undermines the development of the individual skills and capacities necessary for a democratic society by substituting collaborative problem-solving for the exclusion and physical removal of students. The research lends empirical grounds for recommending the reform of school governance and the implementation of more constructive models of discipline.
Legitimacy claims can only be made and processes of legitimation can only unfold in a specified c... more Legitimacy claims can only be made and processes of legitimation can only unfold in a specified context. This essay uses Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the social field to name this context and to analyze the construction of the bureaucratic or public administrative field in the United States. “Field” is meant in a triple sense—public administration as a general, institutionalized field in the structure of government, public administration as a professional field, and public administration as an academic field of study. Thus rather than the bureaucratic field, the relationship of these bureaucratic fields or an “ensemble of fields” is analyzed to consider how each field both bounds its own legitimation struggles and draws from other fields for symbolic resources—what Bourdieu calls symbolic capital—to establish its legitimacy and position. The multi-field quality of public administration is used to show how the nature of the general bureaucratic field is distinct from other fields insofar as it purports to represent a universal, general interest. This difference is used to theorize a distinction between “general” and “specific” legitimation processes.
A second paper in my ongoing examination of the work of Alain Badiou and its possibilities for pu... more A second paper in my ongoing examination of the work of Alain Badiou and its possibilities for public administration--and a contribution to and qualification of my interest, too, in love as political concept. The paper describes Badiou's notion of the Event and how love is, distinctively, one kind of Event though which a Truth (a truth-procedure) is produced. I spend a good amount of time with Badiou's discussion of fidelity and the process through which worlds grounded in particular truth-events are generated. I argue from this that Badiou's doesn't help us to understand mundane "ontic" matters like everyday governing but try to extend his work by suggesting that fidelity to political Events and the unfolding of "political sequences" that "incorporates" a political body may be called "governing" (in the governmentality sense of the term, the conduct of conduct). I then locate this approach to ethics in terms of how we proceed in the work of governing.
This article examines the "citizen side" of the performance and audit revolution through an explo... more This article examines the "citizen side" of the performance and audit revolution through an exploration of individuals engaged in a "data-driven life." Through an exploratory qualitative study of individuals' video logs taken from the "Quantified Self" website, we examine how individuals are using information technology and web 2.0 interfaces to generate data about themselves for themselves. We explore the questions, 'Who are the subjects of governing today?' and 'How do subjects care for and govern themselves, and how is data put to use?' We analyze the different kinds of self- government, expertise, and practices of the self that are involved in self-quantifying practices. The article concludes by examining the implications of these practices for our larger understanding of governance and the subject of governance in an emerging "info-liberal age."
This paper explores "thing theory" (e.g. Graham Harman, Alfonso Lingus) and the human-object divi... more This paper explores "thing theory" (e.g. Graham Harman, Alfonso Lingus) and the human-object divide in the domain of public administration. We suggest that things or objects get short-shrift in public administration scholarship. Positivists do not think about things at all and constructivists end up policing the divide between humans and things. They accept objects only insofar as they are, in their being, for human consciousness. As such the ontological status of objects, their be-ing, is ignored and they become epistemological problems (How do we know them?). We suggest that taking things more seriously in their own right could change how we approach the work of governance.
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2013
This essay reviews books by Jos C.N. Raadschelders (Public Administration: The Interdisciplinary ... more This essay reviews books by Jos C.N. Raadschelders (Public Administration: The Interdisciplinary Study of Government, 2011) and Norma M. Riccucci (Public Administration: Traditions of Inquiry and Philosophies of Knowledge, 2010)
This essay examines the governance of small towns in the United States. Small towns have received... more This essay examines the governance of small towns in the United States. Small towns have received little attention in the public administration literature to date, yet 1 in 10 Americans still lives in one, representing roughly 75 percent of all municipalities in the United States and some 33 million people. Small towns are characterized as dense, multiplex networks that lend unique dynamics to local politics. However, they face significant social, economic, technological, and demographic trends that compromise towns’ prevailing frame of reference, fracture their networks, and alter the traditional setting of small-town governance. In the face of these issues, “thicker,” more active ways of engaging the public are needed to reknit community bonds and build civic capacity. Service learning for master of public administration students is proposed as a way to develop the emotional intelligence necessary to make sense of the complex social dynamics of small towns and to facilitate the hard work of building enabling relationships.
This paper was delivered as part of a panel of invited commentary on an article by David Rosenblo... more This paper was delivered as part of a panel of invited commentary on an article by David Rosenbloom and Robert Durant, "The Hollowing Out of American Public Administration." While generally sympathetic to their cause, I raise doubts about whether their approach to the matters is sufficient. In particular I wonder how big their "big tent" approach to the field is and whether their is a place for critical theory, their insistence that academics must delivered "practical" knowledge to practitioners, and their failure to situate their critique of academic research within the broader dynamics of neoliberalization. For 30 years academic public administration has advanced neoliberalization via the new public management and now academics are simply being hoisted on their own petard--sometimes quite happily
This chapter argues for robust, post-sectoral view of democratic practice, rooted in Dewey's clai... more This chapter argues for robust, post-sectoral view of democratic practice, rooted in Dewey's claim that democracy is not merely a form of government but a "way of life." We make a theoretically and empirically grounded case for why thinking about democracy is necessary today in light of the dominance of market based approaches to governance and social relations.
This paper analyzes the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act and, in particular, the e... more This paper analyzes the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act and, in particular, the equity crowdfunding provisions of title III from a governmentality perspective. Though it has received comparatively little media or academic attention, the Act arguably represents the most significant development in US securities law in 80 years. After detailing the many changes that the JOBS Act makes to securities regulation, the paper argues that title III exemplifies the ongoing mutation or “rolling out” of neoliberal governmentality that researchers have called “info-liberalism” or “Gov 2.0.” This creates a new relationship between elements of neoliberal governmentality, an ethos of democracy, and the production and circulation of data to articulate a novel practice of “social government.” The paper shows how title III’s equity crowdfunding provisions imagine the active citizen as entrepreneur and investor, regulation by the crowd, and the state primarily as enabler and facilitator of social connectivity.
I argue that neoliberal governmentalities replicate the bureaucratic experience or what Denhardt ... more I argue that neoliberal governmentalities replicate the bureaucratic experience or what Denhardt called "the organizational ethic" in a new guise, the “performance ethic.” We recognize the damage neoliberal government does to social solidarity. But, like the organizational ethic, neoliberal government also destroying and undermining our relationships to ourselves and, as such, erodes the basis from which to build and sustain strong relationships with others and a basis for sound action and solidarity. We are depressing and debilitating ourselves, and creating destructive relationships of dependency on elite authority and management for personal recognition and meaning. We remain in the long, dark shadow of organization. This paper is the text of the keynote address delivered at the 2014 Public Administration Theory Network Conference.
There has been much debate about the change Barack Obama represents. This article considers this ... more There has been much debate about the change Barack Obama represents. This article considers this question by using Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality to explore the underlying governmental rationality of his administration’s policies and management practices. Obama’s governmentality is examined via the Open Government Directive, arguably the central initiative of the administration. The article concludes that this governmentality may be viewed as a mutation within neoliberalism, which the authors call info-liberalism—one that deploys a novel, integrative conception of social government. Info-liberalism is examined in conjunction with the contemporary usage of the term governance to analyze more broadly the dynamics of government and citizen participation today.
Theory and practice in contemporary governance place discourse, dialogue, and story-telling at th... more Theory and practice in contemporary governance place discourse, dialogue, and story-telling at the center of the field of public administration. These speaking practices involve both the capacity of someone to speak and someone to listen to what is being said. Public administration primarily emphasizes the former and neglects the latter. Yet, if the current breakdown in our “communicative infrastructure” is to be repaired, it is equally important to consider how the listener attends to another’s speech, as it is to creating settings and opportunities to speak. Drawing from Michel Foucault’s final three lectures, this paper theorizes the role of listening in creating a robust public sphere. Central to the argument are Foucault’s analyses of the ancient Greek practices of the “care of the self” and a specific kind of truth telling, parrēsia. Listening is shown to be the central practice of self-care: To be able to listen, we must learn to attend to and take care of ourselves. This practice enables the subject not only to govern others, but also to listen to parrēsiac speech when spoken by others in public. The field has not yet fully understood how this “personal” practice of taking-care-of-oneself and, in particular, the cultivation of the capacity to listen is the sine qua non for the emergence of a functioning public realm and responsive government.
Since the 1960s, hostility and mistrust toward the U.S. government has risen precipitously. At th... more Since the 1960s, hostility and mistrust toward the U.S. government has risen precipitously. At the same time, the field of public administration has wrestled with its own crisis of legitimacy. What is at the root of current antigovernment sentiment? Conventionally, two explanations for this problem persist. Some see it primarily in moral terms, a deficit of Constitutional or democratic values in government. Others emphasize government’s performance failures and managerial inefficiency.
Thomas J. Catlaw departs from both explanations in this groundbreaking study and demonstrates that the current crisis of government originates in the uncritical manner in which we have accepted the idea of “the People.” He contends that this unifying, foundational concept—and the notion of political representation it entails—have failed. While illuminating some of our most pressing social and political problems, Catlaw shows how the idea of the People, far from serving to unify, relies in fact on a distinctive logic of exclusion. True political power is the power to determine what constitutes the normal, natural life of the electorate. Today, the exclusionary practices that once made up or fabricated the People are increasingly contested. In turn, government and political power now appear more invasive, less legitimate, and our shared reality appears more fragmented and disconnected.
In order to address this crisis and reinvigorate democracy, Catlaw argues, we must accept as bankrupt the premise of the People and the idea of representation itself. Fabricating the People boldly proposes post-representational governance that reframes the practice of modern democracy and reinvents the role of public administration.
THEORIES OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Seventh Edition, is a brief, readable overview of public admin... more THEORIES OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Seventh Edition, is a brief, readable overview of public administration theory that presents multiple viewpoints, enabling students to develop their own philosophies of public administration, and helping them relate theory to application. The Seventh Edition incorporates a theme of Governance, which explores the traditions, institutions, and processes that determine how power is exercised, how citizens are given a voice, and how decisions are made on issues of public concern.
Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 2019
Public encounters between street-level bureaucrats and citizens predominantly function through in... more Public encounters between street-level bureaucrats and citizens predominantly function through interpersonal interactions. However, there has been relatively little study of the role of talk, what we refer to as language-in-use, in accomplishing the tasks and related objectives within the encounter. This oversight has limited our understanding of the collaborative, negotiated process of public encounters, rendered citizens mostly invisible, and left unexamined the connection between encounters and outcomes. Drawing on the rich but under-utilized tradition of ethnomethodology, a methodology created for studying routine interactions, we provide an analytical example of the language-in-use in one encounter to demonstrate how ethnomethodology is uniquely appropriate for understanding public encounters. We argue that an ethnomethodological approach illuminates the mechanisms that make some outcomes possible, others improbable, and that these accomplishments are important for understanding a variety of outcomes.
This paper critically examines the ways in which organizational performance and audit practices i... more This paper critically examines the ways in which organizational performance and audit practices intersect with the dynamics of contemporary capitalism, managerialism, and individualism in the workplace to shape the experience of the “postmodern” subject at work. Drawing from Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, the paper argues that the conditions for the contemporary subject are characterized by the declining efficacy of the Symbolic order, which induces the production of people whose identities are fragile and unstable. Paradoxically, this instability emerges at a historical moment at which individuals are commanded to “self-actualize” and to not be limited by authority or tradition. Neoliberalism makes “work” assume particular importance in this project. The paper argues that the decline of the Symbolic, in turn, places a heavy weight on interpersonal relationships in the Imaginary, or among alter-egos, to produce any semblance of a stable identity. Workplace performance measures and audit practices offer seductive points of identification and “quantifiable” stability for the subject in search of her “authentic” self at work in particular. Yet, at the same time, these measures painfully ensnare the subject in external identifications and managerial validation in new, debilitating ways.
This paper critically examines the ways in which organizational performance and audit practices i... more This paper critically examines the ways in which organizational performance and audit practices intersect with the dynamics of contemporary capitalism, managerialism, and individualism to shape the experience of the entrepreneurial, “post-neurotic” subject at work. Drawing from Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, the paper argues that the conditions for the contemporary subject are characterized by the declining efficacy of the Symbolic order, which induces the production of people whose identities are fragile and unstable. Paradoxically, this instability emerges at a historical moment at which individuals are commanded to “self-actualize” and to not be limited by authority or tradition. Neoliberalism makes “Work” assume particular importance in this project. The paper argues that the decline of the Symbolic, in turn, places a heavy weight on interpersonal relationships in the Imaginary, or among alter-egos, to produce any semblance of a stable identity. Workplace performance measures and audit practices offer seductive points of identification and “quantifiable” stability for the subject in search of her “authentic” self at work in particular. Yet, at the same time, these measures painfully ensnare the subject in external identifications and managerial validation in new, constraining ways.
This study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health dataset to evaluate the lon... more This study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health dataset to evaluate the long-term influence of school discipline and security on political and civic participation. We find that young adults with a history of school suspension are less likely than others to vote and volunteer in civic activities years later, suggesting that suspension negatively impacts the likelihood that youth engage in future political and civic activities. These findings are consistent with prior theory and research highlighting the long-term negative implications of punitive disciplinary policies and the role schools play in preparing youth to participate in a democratic polity. We conclude that suspension undermines the development of the individual skills and capacities necessary for a democratic society by substituting collaborative problem-solving for the exclusion and physical removal of students. The research lends empirical grounds for recommending the reform of school governance and the implementation of more constructive models of discipline.
Legitimacy claims can only be made and processes of legitimation can only unfold in a specified c... more Legitimacy claims can only be made and processes of legitimation can only unfold in a specified context. This essay uses Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the social field to name this context and to analyze the construction of the bureaucratic or public administrative field in the United States. “Field” is meant in a triple sense—public administration as a general, institutionalized field in the structure of government, public administration as a professional field, and public administration as an academic field of study. Thus rather than the bureaucratic field, the relationship of these bureaucratic fields or an “ensemble of fields” is analyzed to consider how each field both bounds its own legitimation struggles and draws from other fields for symbolic resources—what Bourdieu calls symbolic capital—to establish its legitimacy and position. The multi-field quality of public administration is used to show how the nature of the general bureaucratic field is distinct from other fields insofar as it purports to represent a universal, general interest. This difference is used to theorize a distinction between “general” and “specific” legitimation processes.
A second paper in my ongoing examination of the work of Alain Badiou and its possibilities for pu... more A second paper in my ongoing examination of the work of Alain Badiou and its possibilities for public administration--and a contribution to and qualification of my interest, too, in love as political concept. The paper describes Badiou's notion of the Event and how love is, distinctively, one kind of Event though which a Truth (a truth-procedure) is produced. I spend a good amount of time with Badiou's discussion of fidelity and the process through which worlds grounded in particular truth-events are generated. I argue from this that Badiou's doesn't help us to understand mundane "ontic" matters like everyday governing but try to extend his work by suggesting that fidelity to political Events and the unfolding of "political sequences" that "incorporates" a political body may be called "governing" (in the governmentality sense of the term, the conduct of conduct). I then locate this approach to ethics in terms of how we proceed in the work of governing.
This article examines the "citizen side" of the performance and audit revolution through an explo... more This article examines the "citizen side" of the performance and audit revolution through an exploration of individuals engaged in a "data-driven life." Through an exploratory qualitative study of individuals' video logs taken from the "Quantified Self" website, we examine how individuals are using information technology and web 2.0 interfaces to generate data about themselves for themselves. We explore the questions, 'Who are the subjects of governing today?' and 'How do subjects care for and govern themselves, and how is data put to use?' We analyze the different kinds of self- government, expertise, and practices of the self that are involved in self-quantifying practices. The article concludes by examining the implications of these practices for our larger understanding of governance and the subject of governance in an emerging "info-liberal age."
This paper explores "thing theory" (e.g. Graham Harman, Alfonso Lingus) and the human-object divi... more This paper explores "thing theory" (e.g. Graham Harman, Alfonso Lingus) and the human-object divide in the domain of public administration. We suggest that things or objects get short-shrift in public administration scholarship. Positivists do not think about things at all and constructivists end up policing the divide between humans and things. They accept objects only insofar as they are, in their being, for human consciousness. As such the ontological status of objects, their be-ing, is ignored and they become epistemological problems (How do we know them?). We suggest that taking things more seriously in their own right could change how we approach the work of governance.
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2013
This essay reviews books by Jos C.N. Raadschelders (Public Administration: The Interdisciplinary ... more This essay reviews books by Jos C.N. Raadschelders (Public Administration: The Interdisciplinary Study of Government, 2011) and Norma M. Riccucci (Public Administration: Traditions of Inquiry and Philosophies of Knowledge, 2010)
This essay examines the governance of small towns in the United States. Small towns have received... more This essay examines the governance of small towns in the United States. Small towns have received little attention in the public administration literature to date, yet 1 in 10 Americans still lives in one, representing roughly 75 percent of all municipalities in the United States and some 33 million people. Small towns are characterized as dense, multiplex networks that lend unique dynamics to local politics. However, they face significant social, economic, technological, and demographic trends that compromise towns’ prevailing frame of reference, fracture their networks, and alter the traditional setting of small-town governance. In the face of these issues, “thicker,” more active ways of engaging the public are needed to reknit community bonds and build civic capacity. Service learning for master of public administration students is proposed as a way to develop the emotional intelligence necessary to make sense of the complex social dynamics of small towns and to facilitate the hard work of building enabling relationships.
This paper was delivered as part of a panel of invited commentary on an article by David Rosenblo... more This paper was delivered as part of a panel of invited commentary on an article by David Rosenbloom and Robert Durant, "The Hollowing Out of American Public Administration." While generally sympathetic to their cause, I raise doubts about whether their approach to the matters is sufficient. In particular I wonder how big their "big tent" approach to the field is and whether their is a place for critical theory, their insistence that academics must delivered "practical" knowledge to practitioners, and their failure to situate their critique of academic research within the broader dynamics of neoliberalization. For 30 years academic public administration has advanced neoliberalization via the new public management and now academics are simply being hoisted on their own petard--sometimes quite happily
This chapter argues for robust, post-sectoral view of democratic practice, rooted in Dewey's clai... more This chapter argues for robust, post-sectoral view of democratic practice, rooted in Dewey's claim that democracy is not merely a form of government but a "way of life." We make a theoretically and empirically grounded case for why thinking about democracy is necessary today in light of the dominance of market based approaches to governance and social relations.
This paper analyzes the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act and, in particular, the e... more This paper analyzes the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act and, in particular, the equity crowdfunding provisions of title III from a governmentality perspective. Though it has received comparatively little media or academic attention, the Act arguably represents the most significant development in US securities law in 80 years. After detailing the many changes that the JOBS Act makes to securities regulation, the paper argues that title III exemplifies the ongoing mutation or “rolling out” of neoliberal governmentality that researchers have called “info-liberalism” or “Gov 2.0.” This creates a new relationship between elements of neoliberal governmentality, an ethos of democracy, and the production and circulation of data to articulate a novel practice of “social government.” The paper shows how title III’s equity crowdfunding provisions imagine the active citizen as entrepreneur and investor, regulation by the crowd, and the state primarily as enabler and facilitator of social connectivity.
I argue that neoliberal governmentalities replicate the bureaucratic experience or what Denhardt ... more I argue that neoliberal governmentalities replicate the bureaucratic experience or what Denhardt called "the organizational ethic" in a new guise, the “performance ethic.” We recognize the damage neoliberal government does to social solidarity. But, like the organizational ethic, neoliberal government also destroying and undermining our relationships to ourselves and, as such, erodes the basis from which to build and sustain strong relationships with others and a basis for sound action and solidarity. We are depressing and debilitating ourselves, and creating destructive relationships of dependency on elite authority and management for personal recognition and meaning. We remain in the long, dark shadow of organization. This paper is the text of the keynote address delivered at the 2014 Public Administration Theory Network Conference.
There has been much debate about the change Barack Obama represents. This article considers this ... more There has been much debate about the change Barack Obama represents. This article considers this question by using Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality to explore the underlying governmental rationality of his administration’s policies and management practices. Obama’s governmentality is examined via the Open Government Directive, arguably the central initiative of the administration. The article concludes that this governmentality may be viewed as a mutation within neoliberalism, which the authors call info-liberalism—one that deploys a novel, integrative conception of social government. Info-liberalism is examined in conjunction with the contemporary usage of the term governance to analyze more broadly the dynamics of government and citizen participation today.
Theory and practice in contemporary governance place discourse, dialogue, and story-telling at th... more Theory and practice in contemporary governance place discourse, dialogue, and story-telling at the center of the field of public administration. These speaking practices involve both the capacity of someone to speak and someone to listen to what is being said. Public administration primarily emphasizes the former and neglects the latter. Yet, if the current breakdown in our “communicative infrastructure” is to be repaired, it is equally important to consider how the listener attends to another’s speech, as it is to creating settings and opportunities to speak. Drawing from Michel Foucault’s final three lectures, this paper theorizes the role of listening in creating a robust public sphere. Central to the argument are Foucault’s analyses of the ancient Greek practices of the “care of the self” and a specific kind of truth telling, parrēsia. Listening is shown to be the central practice of self-care: To be able to listen, we must learn to attend to and take care of ourselves. This practice enables the subject not only to govern others, but also to listen to parrēsiac speech when spoken by others in public. The field has not yet fully understood how this “personal” practice of taking-care-of-oneself and, in particular, the cultivation of the capacity to listen is the sine qua non for the emergence of a functioning public realm and responsive government.
An introduction is presented in which the author discusses articles within the issue on topics in... more An introduction is presented in which the author discusses articles within the issue on topics including democratic political theory of political theorist Chantal Mouffe, the concept of parrhesia as described by philosopher Michel Foucault, and practice of parrhesia in public administration.
Public administration is about how we work and live together; thus, it implies an ethic of collab... more Public administration is about how we work and live together; thus, it implies an ethic of collaboration. Despite this imperative, the ethical terrain in public administration today appears divided into principle-based and market-based ethics of judgment. Drawing from the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, this paper argues that both of these ethical systems unproductively rely on logically similar efforts to reconcile individual demand with the presumption of a super-ordinate value, or conception of the Good, by which all principled claims may be arbitrated. The thesis advanced in here is that, by contrasr, a collaborative ethics is directly concerned with the bearing of desire, that which is excessive to the Good. Such an ethic requires the difficult sacrifice of one’s identity in order to be open to and collaborate with the other. The Academy-award winning German film The Lives of Others provides a compelling example of the nature of this sacrifice as well as the collaboration that flows from it, and may serve as exemplar for those engaged in the practice of public administration.
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Thomas J. Catlaw departs from both explanations in this groundbreaking study and demonstrates that the current crisis of government originates in the uncritical manner in which we have accepted the idea of “the People.” He contends that this unifying, foundational concept—and the notion of political representation it entails—have failed. While illuminating some of our most pressing social and political problems, Catlaw shows how the idea of the People, far from serving to unify, relies in fact on a distinctive logic of exclusion. True political power is the power to determine what constitutes the normal, natural life of the electorate. Today, the exclusionary practices that once made up or fabricated the People are increasingly contested. In turn, government and political power now appear more invasive, less legitimate, and our shared reality appears more fragmented and disconnected.
In order to address this crisis and reinvigorate democracy, Catlaw argues, we must accept as bankrupt the premise of the People and the idea of representation itself. Fabricating the People boldly proposes post-representational governance that reframes the practice of modern democracy and reinvents the role of public administration.
Thomas J. Catlaw departs from both explanations in this groundbreaking study and demonstrates that the current crisis of government originates in the uncritical manner in which we have accepted the idea of “the People.” He contends that this unifying, foundational concept—and the notion of political representation it entails—have failed. While illuminating some of our most pressing social and political problems, Catlaw shows how the idea of the People, far from serving to unify, relies in fact on a distinctive logic of exclusion. True political power is the power to determine what constitutes the normal, natural life of the electorate. Today, the exclusionary practices that once made up or fabricated the People are increasingly contested. In turn, government and political power now appear more invasive, less legitimate, and our shared reality appears more fragmented and disconnected.
In order to address this crisis and reinvigorate democracy, Catlaw argues, we must accept as bankrupt the premise of the People and the idea of representation itself. Fabricating the People boldly proposes post-representational governance that reframes the practice of modern democracy and reinvents the role of public administration.