Brandon C.
PAF 602 (Fall 2008)
Abstract
Stivers, C. M. (2002). Bureau Men, Settlement Women: Constructing Public Administration in the Progressive Era (Studies in Government and Public Policy). University Press Of Kansas.
Camilla Stivers’ Bureau Men, Settlement Women is a historical reconstruction of the early days of public administration with a particular emphasis on gender influences. Focusing on the Progressive Era, Stivers dichotomizes municipal research bureaus and settlement houses as distinct yet complimentary forms of governmental reform organizations central to the rise of the administrative state. Research bureaus, focused on objective and procedural efficiency in administration, are identified as masculine; while settlement houses, focused on substantive social improvement, are seen as feminine. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: abstract, efficiency, Progressive, public administration, reconstruction
Brandon C.
PAF 602 (Fall 2008)
Abstract
Denhardt, R. B. (1991). In the Shadow of Organization. Regents Press of Kansas.
Robert Denhardt’s In the Shadow of Organization focuses on the impact of individuals within organizations and how organizational efficiency or rationality is encroaching into our individuality. Modern organizations and organization administration have heavily borrowed principles of rationality and objectivity from the sciences. This has resulted in a one-sided focus of placing the rational goals of the organization above, and often in place of, those of the individual members of the organization. This, according to Jung, inhibits the necessary individualization required by people to become whole and balanced beings. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: abstract, bureaucracy, domination, morality, objectivity, Organization, public administration, rationality, Robert Denhardt
Brandon C.
PAF 602 (Fall 2008)
Abstract
Ostrom, V. (1989). The Intellectual Crisis in American Public Administration. University Alabama Press.
Vincent Ostrom’s The Intellectual Crisis in American Public Administration is an argument against bureaucratic administration in favor of democratic administration. Ostrom sees a fundamental dichotomy in the field of public administration and presses for a paradigm shift in classical Kuhn fashion. This shift is away from the traditional theory of public administration as layed out by Woodrow Wilson, Max Weber, and others. Drawing upon Alexis Tocqueville, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and others, Ostrom argues that fragmentation of authority and overlapping jurisdiction allow for less abuse of power and greater efficiency in administration. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: abstract, abuse, critique, efficiency, power, public administration
Brandon C.
PAF 602 (Fall 2008)
Abstract
Follett, M. P. (1998). The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government. Pennsylvania State University Press.
Mary Parker Follett’s The New State is a declaration of unity over individualism and neighborhood groups over party organizations. Follett attests that our representative government has failed and that democracy, “by the numbers” is not a true democracy. “…no one can give us democracy, we must learn democracy,” (p. 22) and according to Follett, that learned democracy is experienced in neighborhood groups. Within these groups, individuals come together and harmonize their ideas and needs into collective will and action. To Follett, this is the foundation of a popular democracy. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: abstract, critique, democracy, mary parker follett, Progressive, the new state
