Models of Community and Civil Society
Recently, there has been a rebirth of interest in the idea of community and civility in America. Political leaders of both major political parties, scholars of different camps, best-selling writers and popular commentators not only agree that community in America has deteriorated, but acknowledge that we desperately need a renewed sense of community. Despite increasing diversity in America, or perhaps because of it, community is seen as a way of bringing about unity and synthesis (Bellah et al. 1985, 1991; Etzioni 1988, 1995; Gardner 1991; Selznick 1992). In public administration, the quest for community has been reflected in the view that the role of government, especially local government, is indeed to help create and support “community.”
In part, this effort depends on building a healthy and active set of “mediating institutions” that simultaneously give focus to the desires and interests of citizens and provide experiences that will better prepare those citizens for action in the larger political system. As Putnam (I995) argues, America’s democratic tradition depends on the existence of engaged citizens, active in all sons of groups, associations, and governmental units. Collectively, these small groups constitute a “civil society” in which people need to work out their personal interests in the context of community concerns. Only here can citizens engage one another in the kind of personal dialogue and deliberation that is the essence of community building and of democracy itself. Again, as King and Stivers (1998) point out, government can play an important and critical role in creating, facilitating, and supporting these connections between citizens and their communities.
Organizational Humanism and Discourse Theory
Over the past 25 years, public administration theorists, including those associated with the radical public administzrationists of the late 1960s and early l97Os (Marini1971), have joined colleagues in other disciplines in suggesting that traditional hierarchical approaches to social organization and positivist approaches to social science are mutually reinforcing. Consequently, they have joined in a critique of bureaucracy and positivism, leading, in turn, to a search for alternative approaches to management and organization and an exploration of new approaches to knowledge acquisition—including interpretive theory (for example, Harmon 1981), critical theory (Denhardt 1981), and postmodernism (Farmer 1995; Fox and Miller 1995; McSwite 1997; Miller and Fox 1997). Collectively, these approaches have sought to fashion public organizations less dominated by issues of authority and control and more attentive to the needs and concerns of employees inside public organizations as well as those outside, especially clients and citizens.
These trends have been central to interpretive and critical analyses of bureaucracy and society, but they have been even further extended in recent efforts to employ the perspectives of postmodern thinking, especially discourse theory, in understanding public organizations. While there are significant differences among the various postmodern theorists, they seem to arrive at a similar conclusion—because we depend on one another in the postmodern world, governance must be based on sincere and open discourse among all parties, including citizens and administrators. And while postmodern public administration theorists are skeptical of traditional approaches to public participation, there seems to be considerable agreement that enhanced public dialogue is required to reinvigorate the public bureaucracy and restore a sense of legitimacy to the field of public administration. In other words, there is a need to reconceptualize the field and, both practically and intellectually, so as to build a New Public Service.
The New Public Service
Theorists of citizenship, community and civil society, organizational humanists, and postmodernist public administrationists have helped to establish a climate in which it makes sense today to talk about a New Public Service. Though we acknowledge that differences exist in these viewpoints, we suggest there are also similarities that distinguish the cluster of ideas we call the New Public Service from those associated with the New Public Management and the old public administration. Moreover, there are a number of practical lessons that the New Public Service suggests for those in public administration. These lessons are not mutually exclusive, rather they are mutually reinforcing. Among these, we find the following most compelling.
1. Serve, rather than steer. An increasingly important role of the public servant is to help citizens articulate and meet their shared interests, rather than to attempt to control or steer society in new directions.
While in the past, govemment played a central role in what has been called the “steering of society” (Nelissen et al. 1999), the complexity of modem life sometimes makes such a role not only inappropriate, but impossible. Those policies and programs that give structure and direction to social and political life today are the result of the interaction of many different groups and organizations, the mixture of many different opinions and interests. In many areas, it no longer makes sense to think of public policies as the result of governmental decision-making processes. Government is indeed a player—and in most cases a very substantial player. But public policies today, the policies that guide society, are the outcome of a complex set of interactions involving multiple groups and multiple interests ultimately combining in fascinating and unpredictable ways. Government is no longer in charge.
In this new world, the primary role of government is not merely to direct the actions of the public through regulation and decree (though that may sometimes be appropriate), nor is it to simply establish a set of rules and incentives (sticks or carrots) through which people will be guided in the “proper” direction. Rather, government becomes another player, albeit an important player in the process of moving society in one direction or another. Government acts, in concert with private and nonprofit groups and organizations, to seek solutions to the problems that communities face. In this process, the role of government is transformed from one of controlling to one of agenda setting, bringing the proper players to the table and facilitating, negotiating, or brokering solutions to public problems (often through coalitions of public, private, and nonprofit agencies). Where traditionally government has responded to needs by saying “yes, we can provide that service,” or “no, we can’t,” the New Public Service suggests that elected officials and public managers should respond to the requests of citizens not just by saying yes or no, but by saying, “let’s work together to figure out what we’re going to do, then make it happen.“ In a World of active citizenship, public officials will increasingly play more than a service delivery role—they will play a conciliating, a mediating, or even an adjudicating role. (Incidentally, these new roles will require new skills—not the old skills of management control, but new skills of brokering, negotiating, and conflict resolution.)
2. The public interest is the aim, not the by-product. Public administrators must contribute to building a collective, shared notion of the public interest. The goal is not to find quick solutions driven by individual choices. Rather, it is the creation of shared interests and shared responsibility.
The New Public Service demands that the process of establishing a vision for society is not something merely left to elected political leaders or appointed public administrators. Instead, the activity of establishing a vision or direction is something in which widespread public dialogue and deliberation are central (Bryson and Crosby 1992; Luke 1998; Stone 1988). The role of government will increasingly be to bring people together in settings that allow unconstrained and authentic discourse concerning the direction society should take. Based on these deliberations, a broad-based vision for the community. the state, or the nation can be established and provide a guiding set of ideas (or ideals) for the future. It is less important for this process to result in a single set of goals than it is for it to engage administrators, politicians, and citizens in a process of thinking about a desired future for their community and their nation.
In addition to its facilitating role, government also has a moral obligation to assure solutions that are generated through such processes are fully consistent with norms of justice and fairness, Government will act to facilitate the solutions to public problems, but it will also be responsible for assuring those solutions are consistent with the public interest—both in substance and in process. In other words, the role of government will become one of assuring that the public interest predominates, that both the solutions themselves and the process by which solutions to public problems are developed are consistent with democratic norms of justice, fairness, and equity (lngraham and Ban l9S8; lngraham and Rosenbloom 1989).
In short, the public servant will take an active role increating arenas in which citizens, through discourse, can articulate shared values and develop a collective sense of the public interest. Rather than simply responding to disparate voices by forming a compromise, public administrators will engage citizens with one another so that they come to understand each other‘s interests and adopt a longer range and broader sense of community and societal interests.
3. Think strategically, act democratically. Policies and programs meeting public needs can be most effectively and responsibly achieved through collective efforts and collaborative processes.
To
Models of Community and Civil SocietyRecently, there has been a rebirth of interest in the idea of community and civility in America. Political leaders of both major political parties, scholars of different camps, best-selling writers and popular commentators not only agree that community in America has deteriorated, but acknowledge that we desperately need a renewed sense of community. Despite increasing diversity in America, or perhaps because of it, community is seen as a way of bringing about unity and synthesis (Bellah et al. 1985, 1991; Etzioni 1988, 1995; Gardner 1991; Selznick 1992). In public administration, the quest for community has been reflected in the view that the role of government, especially local government, is indeed to help create and support “community.”In part, this effort depends on building a healthy and active set of “mediating institutions” that simultaneously give focus to the desires and interests of citizens and provide experiences that will better prepare those citizens for action in the larger political system. As Putnam (I995) argues, America’s democratic tradition depends on the existence of engaged citizens, active in all sons of groups, associations, and governmental units. Collectively, these small groups constitute a “civil society” in which people need to work out their personal interests in the context of community concerns. Only here can citizens engage one another in the kind of personal dialogue and deliberation that is the essence of community building and of democracy itself. Again, as King and Stivers (1998) point out, government can play an important and critical role in creating, facilitating, and supporting these connections between citizens and their communities.Organizational Humanism and Discourse TheoryOver the past 25 years, public administration theorists, including those associated with the radical public administzrationists of the late 1960s and early l97Os (Marini1971), have joined colleagues in other disciplines in suggesting that traditional hierarchical approaches to social organization and positivist approaches to social science are mutually reinforcing. Consequently, they have joined in a critique of bureaucracy and positivism, leading, in turn, to a search for alternative approaches to management and organization and an exploration of new approaches to knowledge acquisition—including interpretive theory (for example, Harmon 1981), critical theory (Denhardt 1981), and postmodernism (Farmer 1995; Fox and Miller 1995; McSwite 1997; Miller and Fox 1997). Collectively, these approaches have sought to fashion public organizations less dominated by issues of authority and control and more attentive to the needs and concerns of employees inside public organizations as well as those outside, especially clients and citizens.These trends have been central to interpretive and critical analyses of bureaucracy and society, but they have been even further extended in recent efforts to employ the perspectives of postmodern thinking, especially discourse theory, in understanding public organizations. While there are significant differences among the various postmodern theorists, they seem to arrive at a similar conclusion—because we depend on one another in the postmodern world, governance must be based on sincere and open discourse among all parties, including citizens and administrators. And while postmodern public administration theorists are skeptical of traditional approaches to public participation, there seems to be considerable agreement that enhanced public dialogue is required to reinvigorate the public bureaucracy and restore a sense of legitimacy to the field of public administration. In other words, there is a need to reconceptualize the field and, both practically and intellectually, so as to build a New Public Service.The New Public ServiceTheorists of citizenship, community and civil society, organizational humanists, and postmodernist public administrationists have helped to establish a climate in which it makes sense today to talk about a New Public Service. Though we acknowledge that differences exist in these viewpoints, we suggest there are also similarities that distinguish the cluster of ideas we call the New Public Service from those associated with the New Public Management and the old public administration. Moreover, there are a number of practical lessons that the New Public Service suggests for those in public administration. These lessons are not mutually exclusive, rather they are mutually reinforcing. Among these, we find the following most compelling.1. Serve, rather than steer. An increasingly important role of the public servant is to help citizens articulate and meet their shared interests, rather than to attempt to control or steer society in new directions.While in the past, govemment played a central role in what has been called the “steering of society” (Nelissen et al. 1999), the complexity of modem life sometimes makes such a role not only inappropriate, but impossible. Those policies and programs that give structure and direction to social and political life today are the result of the interaction of many different groups and organizations, the mixture of many different opinions and interests. In many areas, it no longer makes sense to think of public policies as the result of governmental decision-making processes. Government is indeed a player—and in most cases a very substantial player. But public policies today, the policies that guide society, are the outcome of a complex set of interactions involving multiple groups and multiple interests ultimately combining in fascinating and unpredictable ways. Government is no longer in charge.In this new world, the primary role of government is not merely to direct the actions of the public through regulation and decree (though that may sometimes be appropriate), nor is it to simply establish a set of rules and incentives (sticks or carrots) through which people will be guided in the “proper” direction. Rather, government becomes another player, albeit an important player in the process of moving society in one direction or another. Government acts, in concert with private and nonprofit groups and organizations, to seek solutions to the problems that communities face. In this process, the role of government is transformed from one of controlling to one of agenda setting, bringing the proper players to the table and facilitating, negotiating, or brokering solutions to public problems (often through coalitions of public, private, and nonprofit agencies). Where traditionally government has responded to needs by saying “yes, we can provide that service,” or “no, we can’t,” the New Public Service suggests that elected officials and public managers should respond to the requests of citizens not just by saying yes or no, but by saying, “let’s work together to figure out what we’re going to do, then make it happen.“ In a World of active citizenship, public officials will increasingly play more than a service delivery role—they will play a conciliating, a mediating, or even an adjudicating role. (Incidentally, these new roles will require new skills—not the old skills of management control, but new skills of brokering, negotiating, and conflict resolution.)
2. The public interest is the aim, not the by-product. Public administrators must contribute to building a collective, shared notion of the public interest. The goal is not to find quick solutions driven by individual choices. Rather, it is the creation of shared interests and shared responsibility.
The New Public Service demands that the process of establishing a vision for society is not something merely left to elected political leaders or appointed public administrators. Instead, the activity of establishing a vision or direction is something in which widespread public dialogue and deliberation are central (Bryson and Crosby 1992; Luke 1998; Stone 1988). The role of government will increasingly be to bring people together in settings that allow unconstrained and authentic discourse concerning the direction society should take. Based on these deliberations, a broad-based vision for the community. the state, or the nation can be established and provide a guiding set of ideas (or ideals) for the future. It is less important for this process to result in a single set of goals than it is for it to engage administrators, politicians, and citizens in a process of thinking about a desired future for their community and their nation.
In addition to its facilitating role, government also has a moral obligation to assure solutions that are generated through such processes are fully consistent with norms of justice and fairness, Government will act to facilitate the solutions to public problems, but it will also be responsible for assuring those solutions are consistent with the public interest—both in substance and in process. In other words, the role of government will become one of assuring that the public interest predominates, that both the solutions themselves and the process by which solutions to public problems are developed are consistent with democratic norms of justice, fairness, and equity (lngraham and Ban l9S8; lngraham and Rosenbloom 1989).
In short, the public servant will take an active role increating arenas in which citizens, through discourse, can articulate shared values and develop a collective sense of the public interest. Rather than simply responding to disparate voices by forming a compromise, public administrators will engage citizens with one another so that they come to understand each other‘s interests and adopt a longer range and broader sense of community and societal interests.
3. Think strategically, act democratically. Policies and programs meeting public needs can be most effectively and responsibly achieved through collective efforts and collaborative processes.
To
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