And what would serve as a better rationale for their moral reforms in government than an abstract appeal to the higher law of administration?”
(Stillman, 1973, p. 587).
Stillman’s remark skirts authorship by prefacing the claim with the
rather ambiguous “one might speculate,” so let the author of the present article be that
“one.” Inaugurating the study of administration is itself an act of closure (an ideology) seeking
to establish a system of order under a perceived threat of disorder. Put differently, as I will discuss
further below, public administration that follows a Wilsonian path is best understood
through Rancière’s concept of la police. As a system of order, Wilsonian public administration
does not seek the proper balance of politics and administration; it is premised on the elimination
of politics altogether. I hope to show that this is a thoroughly uncontroversial claim that fully
dissolves any appeal to neutrality for the field.