The Recovery of Civism in Public Administration.

Liberal Education Pub Date : 1982-11-01 DOI:10.2307/976119
H. Frederickson
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引用次数: 121

Abstract

Something is wrong. Virtually all of our institutions seem to be in trouble. The family is deteriorating, schools seem to be ineffective, there is deep suspicion of most large-scale organizations including industry, business, and government. There is dwindling support for churches. Crime is alarmingly common. We are balkanized into racial, economic, ethnic, demographic, and sexual divisions. Privatism, greed, self-interest, and self-indulgence challenge the notion of community.' Old assumptions of trust and integrity have slipped into a quagmire of litigiousness which jams the courts. The economy sputters, managing to violate Keynesian notions of the relationship between inflation, unemployment, and interest rates. Government is at the center of virtually all of these problems. The people, the citizens, are very perceptive and know that something is wrong. Survey research indicates a sharp decline in confidence in government as well as most of our institutions.' While we continue to enjoy great political freedom, the lack of support for and confidence in our institutions results in despair and, in some cases, fear. Despair and fear are crippling emotions and can result in one of the oldest of political axioms: given the choice, people will be tempted to trade some freedom for greater security.3 That special American genius for maintaining widespread personal freedom while building public and private institutions that work is being seriously tested, because our institutions are not working as well as they once did. Translating the genius for building institutions to genius in changing institutions to meet new and different circumstances, while preserving individual freedom, is the challenge of our time. The media ordinarily present announcements of declining public support for public institutions in an alarming tone which the people receive with a combination of alarm and despair. Something would be wrong if the people were not responding with expressions of declining respect or support for government institutions. The fact is that our public institutions are not coping. We should be seriously concerned if the people, the citizens, thought that everything was fine. Everything is not fine; the people see that and are responding. That response takes many forms; some are negative and some are positive. The negative responses include seeking to blame government employees, the bureaucracy, for problems in governmental effectiveness. Both
公共管理中公民主义的复苏。
有点不对劲。实际上,我们所有的机构似乎都陷入了困境。家庭正在恶化,学校似乎是无效的,大多数大型组织,包括工业,商业和政府都有深深的怀疑。对教堂的支持越来越少。犯罪是惊人的普遍。我们被划分为种族、经济、民族、人口和性别等不同的阵营。私人主义、贪婪、自我利益和自我放纵挑战了社区的概念。”信任和正直的旧观念已经陷入了诉讼的泥潭,使法庭陷入困境。经济陷入困境,违背了凯恩斯主义关于通货膨胀、失业和利率之间关系的概念。政府实际上是所有这些问题的中心。人民,公民,非常敏锐,知道有些事情是错误的。调查研究显示,民众对政府和大多数机构的信心急剧下降。虽然我们继续享有极大的政治自由,但对我们的机构缺乏支持和信心导致绝望,在某些情况下导致恐惧。绝望和恐惧是使人瘫痪的情绪,并可能导致最古老的政治公理之一:如果有选择,人们会试图用一些自由来换取更大的安全美国人在维护广泛的个人自由的同时,建立起行之有效的公共和私人机构,这种特殊的天赋正受到严峻的考验,因为我们的机构已不像过去那样运转良好。将建立制度的天才转化为改变制度以适应新的和不同的环境,同时保持个人自由的天才,是我们这个时代的挑战。媒体通常以一种令人震惊的语气宣布公众对公共机构的支持下降,而人们听到这种消息时,既感到震惊,又感到绝望。如果民众对政府机构的尊重和支持没有减少,那就有问题了。事实是,我们的公共机构没有应对。如果人民,公民,认为一切都很好,我们应该认真关注。不是一切都好;人们看到了这一点,并做出了回应。这种反应有多种形式;有些是消极的,有些是积极的。负面反应包括试图将政府效率问题归咎于政府雇员和官僚主义。这两个
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