The Social Construction of Public Administration: Interpretive and Critical Perspectives

CHAPTER 2: The Changing Context of Public Administration

The primary objective of this chapter is to briefly explore the successes and the failures of public administration in the twentieth century and their lessons for the new century. The conditions of political, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts have greatly contributed to the growth of public institutions and the scope of public policies. My purpose here is not to review historical developments in detail but rather to show how past policies and administration have generated unanticipated consequences and how they can contribute to our present understanding of today’s problems, as well as provide useful lessons for improving and innovating public administration. One important lesson for coming decades is that the concept of ‘public administration’ should be broadened by relating it more actively to public participation and social relations to seek public input to policy making, implementation, and problem solving. UNANTICIPATED CONSEQUENCES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY The twentieth century was a time of enormous progress in science and technology, industrialization, and the growth of nation-states. For some developed countries, it may be characterized as a period of great transition from the industrial era to the postindustrial era, or from the modern period to the so-called postmodern period. The transition from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy is, of course, still a struggle for most non-Western countries. Since the 1990s, economic globalization has further contributed to market rationality and competition , which is a basic characteristic of global free trade: it maximizes the economic gains of each country but ignores the price paid in human suffering. 21 CHAPTER 2 The Changing Context of Public Administration Both industrial and postindustrial countries in the twentieth century and today have emphasized rational, scientific, and technocratic activities because these have led to discoveries, increased production, bigger profits, and a higher standard of living for an everincreasing portion of the world’s population. The emphasis on rationalism has inevitably conditioned our perceptions of the world. Now the logic of science and technology is the dominant force in our lives. This way of thinking is so omnipresent that we fail to recognize that it permeates everything we do: how we communicate; how we travel; the shape, style, and goals of our organizations; our aspirations; our perceptual processes; our worldviews; the television that we watch; and even our human interactions. The very way that our minds work is affected by these values. Our contemporary civilization is so much the product of the technological revolution of the twentieth century that we barely sense that any other perspectives or values exist—nor can we easily imagine life without rationalistic-linear thinking or the physical products of the technological revolution. Moreover, as industrialized societies become more materialistically oriented, people become more reluctant to ask broad philosophical questions, such as questions about values, relationships, dialogue, distrust and trust, equity, and democratic governance. To keep up with industrialization and the political and economic crises of the twentieth century, the field of public administration focused much of its efforts on the development of management and professional capability, applying an organizational approach that emphasized efficiency and rationality. This organizational (or management ) approach, however sincere, represented either the status quo or only incremental changes in policies designed by policy makers and top administrators, which too often proved to be outmoded, unresponsive, or ineffective in resolving political or societal dilemmas. The strong management emphasis assigned more responsibility to the top echelon of complex organizations, which ensured institutional domination over the people below. Management adopted instrumental and rational approaches to administrative reform and organizational changes in order to improve efficiency and productivity (Jun, 2002, xii–xvii). There were many unanticipated consequences of development and progress that were negative, such as inequity, injustice, environmental disasters, wars, holocaust, and hunger. Major changes were brought about not only through the active role of government—although there 22 THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION were many side effects of government intervention—but also through the collaboration of the people in the construction of socially viable alternatives. Many centralized projects, such as the New Deal programs during the 1930s and the War on Poverty programs in the 1960s in the United States and many developmental projects in industrializing countries, are examples of how projects can be implemented under the guidance of the national government, in cooperation with multiple actors representing different levels of society. Although human actions occurred in a context of social and intergovernmental relations, the relationships within...