Classical Pragmatism, the American Experiment, and Public Administration
Professors Robert Brom and Patricia Shields begin their chapter by explain- ing that classical pragmatism is generally considered to be the only truly original philosophical school and tradition to have emerged in America.
It is also considered to have a recognizably “American” flavor, in that it incorporates the no-nonsense, practical attitude of the Yankee settler concerned with survival, along with the optimistic idealism that may have inspired him into his predicament in the first place: an idealism that this same frontiersman perhaps drew from the lofty proclamations that accom- panied the launching of his young nation. Thus the fertile ground for the rise of classical pragmatism was this fresh, broadly held, melioristic brand of optimism that life is getting nothing but better, contingent upon the hard-bitten assumption that folks aren’t going to be standing around just waiting for it to happen. According to Brom and Shields, classical prag-
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matism offers a way for public administration to overcome the fear of making an imprint without unleashing an attack of random graffiti. An environment deconstructed by postmodern forces may provide an invita- tion to a second courtship of classical pragmatism by public administration.
Nevertheless, pragmatism demands from the relationship a good-faith effort at reconstruction, with all the premodern tools of experience and history available for the job. Classical pragmatism offers the administrator a “method,” sweeping enough to be called a mindset, for navigating these waters. Since the administrator does not have the luxury to be eternally distracted, pragmatism offers her a defensible rationale to recognize and focus on those things that are useful and that work.
“Usefulness” and “workable” are operative concepts in pragmatism.
Since the administrator cannot be paralyzed while waiting for absolute certainty before deciding and proceeding, pragmatism offers a justifica- tion for reaching a reasonable belief and acting on it. Thus, pragmatism as an organizing principle for the public administrator is likely a neces- sity. Because, according to Brom and Shields, it does operate close enough to principles of “common sense,” the public administrator does not have to formally recognize and understand the philosophy in order to be a pragmatist.
Therefore, classical pragmatism as developed by the American philos- ophers and practitioners is more than an art of expediency and compro- mise, as common usage of the ter m connotes, but is a philosophy consciously mindful of altruistic consequence. As though to supremely underline this point, the authors cite the case of Jane Addams (a famous early-American pragmatist) who submits a novel case for Jesus Christas an exemplary practicing pragmatist. The philosophy takes measure of an idea not only for its usefulness, though that is certainly requisite, but for its usefulness in the quest to achieve a state of continuous learning and self-improvement of the human condition.
Making Democracy Safe for the World: Public Administration in the Political Thought of Woodrow Wilson
Professor Brian J. Cook explains that Woodrow Wilson, a late convert to modernism, was influenced by Edmund Burke’s stress on societal order and the controlling force of law. He stressed the critical role and influence of the views of the mass citizens and the importance of subordinating administration to public opinion. For Wilson, the people needed to main- tain control over the president as the nation’s leader and interpreter of national policy. Unity, institutional cooperation, and presidential leadership of party and Congress, as opposed to administration, were the centerpiece of governance.
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Wilson laid important conceptual and practical building blocks for modernist public administration. He helped establish social science and political science as important academic disciplines. Within them, public administration grew. Certainly, his own research contributed to the academic importance of public administration at its beginning, including at some point the famous and often misunderstood politics-administra- tion dichotomy.
Unfortunately, his more subtle and complex understanding of admin- istration did not have the influence that would be expected from a former president of the United States who also was one of the first three Americans that wrote academically on public administration. For example, his own practical ideas of grants-in-aid and regulatory programs became central to common practice in American public administration. Cook makes the case that the writings of Wilson need actually to be studied more and not less for a proper understanding of public administration.
Enduring Narratives from Progressivism
Professor Larkin Sims Dudley does not address a philosopher but rather a political reform era that largely defined contemporary America and significantly influenced the world. From approximately 1880 to 1914, the progressive reform era changed the political landscape of America and set the reform direction in the nation that would continue until the 1970s.
One of its accomplishments was the creation of public administration as a professional field and academic subject. Although remarkably influential, there was no perfect consensus among the reforms. However, they did have a buoyant faith in the progress of mankind born out of the modernist belief in rational thought and scientific protocol to discover and define truth. They sought reform through science and the scientific management based on a Baconian idea of science.
Before 1900, American public life was largely shaped by classical 19th- century liberalism that was wed to laissez faire economics. It was a country that valued nationalism, was committed to representative and weak gov- ernment, supported personal freedom, and assumed that natural laws governed society. Social reformers, including labor unions, sought and achieved their first reform measure for the whole nation that was a direct reaction to the worst consequences of industrialism. They sought not to dismantle the economic and political institutions, but only to reform them based on their faith in humanity’s ability, through purposeful action, to improve their society. They embraced secularization, a rationality of instru- mentalism, separation and specialization in life, bureaucratization, and the key role of science to advance humanity. Progressives believed the good society was efficient, organized, and cohesive. Progressive intellectuals
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and reformers transformed the dominant 19th-century liberalism, broad- ening their allegiance to include the bourgeois and working class, and embracing ideals of equality along with their older values of individual freedom. Significantly, they dropped their close association with laissez faire economics and saw government as the best tool for social change, especially to control the power of business.
The Bureau Movement: Seedbed of Modern Public Administration
Professor Camilla Stivers explains the importance of the bureau movement in shaping “classical” public administration and its importance in the larger Progressive Era. The bureaus were privately sponsored agencies of munic- ipal research created by progressives to systematically investigate govern- ment practices and lessen the hold of the machine bosses on urban politics and policy making. Stivers traces the history, philosophy, and influence of the bureau movement on modern public administration. She argues the impact is worthy of deeper reflection and more equivocal than the relatively basic and mostly sanguine accounts in the contemporary liter- ature. She stresses that we can learn from their remarkable efforts and raise our sights to encompass more fully the substantive dimensions of public administration for the public good.
Positively No Proverbs Need Apply: Revisiting the Legacy of Herbert A. Simon
Professor Peter L. Cruise explains how Herbert A. Simon brought logical positivism to public administration. In the late 1940s and 1950s, as a young University of Chicago doctoral student, Herbert Simon challenged the pioneering work of classical public-administration writers like Frank Good- now, Leonard White, W. E. Willoughby, Luther Gulick, and Lyndall Urwick.
Although he built on the works of Chester I. Barnard, Simon fundamentally shifted the locus and focus of the study to the point that the new field of public administration almost disappeared from the academic and pro- fessional landscape. Simon’s critique of classical public administration was likened to an “atomic bomb,” the “fallout” of which called into the question the academic legitimacy of the field and its traditional approaches. Simon brought logical positivism to public administration, and Cruise explains the evolution of that important epistemological and philosophical bomb- shell. Its antecedents included empiricism, modern science, the scientific method, and logical atomism. Influences include Alfred North Whitehead, Bertrand Russell, and especially Ludwig Wittgenstein and the other writers
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of the Vienna Circle. Cruise details the effects of logical positivism on public administration and places it in perspective by citing counterattacks on it such as phenomenology and the questions raised about qualitative research methodology. Simon forced the field into a period of introspection that eventually led to a countertrend that embraced the importance of value-based issues for the profession.
Mary Parker Follett: Lost and Found — Again, and Again, and Again
Professor Mary Ann Feldheim notes that although well-educated and well- traveled, Mary Parker Follett devoted her life to understanding and building community. Coming from a long tradition of Quaker beliefs, Parker Follett advocated for an integrative unity in the organization or state where members work together, consensus is built, and power is shared. She applied her process of integration to management practices in both busi- ness and government. Parker Follett’s communitarian ideas and philosophy of smaller, more participative government have often run counter to administration and management’s focus on regulation and centralized power. According to Feldheim, this has contributed to the benign neglect of Parker Follett’s work in the administrative and management literature.
Parker Follett’s work has been lost and found repeatedly over the past half century. Feldheim explains that in the rapidly changing and uncertain times of the new millennium we need once again to rediscover her holistic and healing approach to administration and management.
Administrative Statesman, Philosopher, Explorer: The Life, Landscape, and Legacy of Dwight Waldo
Professor Charles Garofalo explains that Dwight Waldo’s many contribu- tions to academic public administration have been amply described, documented, defended, and even disputed by a number of scholars. These observations by scholars, combined with Waldo’s own articles, essays, and books, guide us through the thought of the elder statesman among American public-administration scholars of the mid-to-late 20th century.
These writings illuminate the evolution of Waldo’s thinking and establish his place in the pantheon of administrative theorists. As Rosemary O’Leary of the Maxwell School said after his death in 2000: “It’s sort of like Elvis dying. The King is dead, and there’ll never be anyone else like him” (2).
In this context, Garofalo’s chapter has three goals: (a) to provide a brief biographical sketch of Waldo’s life; (b) to survey the landscape of Waldo’s thought and contributions; and (c) to outline the major contours of Waldo’s legacy for the future of what he called self-aware public administration.
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