Safeguarding the public trust: Teaching organizational dissent in an era of political polarization

Roberts, Robert

doi:10.1080/15236803.2018.1426426

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…"Real democracy" is a term that we have coined to represent the ways that Dewey's democratic principles of engagement, service, and citizenship exist in our present world, a world where the provision of government services increasingly occurs outside the control of government agencies (Warner & Hefetz, 2008), where these agencies rely more heavily on technologies to screen and service clients (Eubanks, 2017), and where government must continuously prove its trustworthiness (Kettl, 2018;Roberts, 2018). Private companies, data scientists, and technology corporations are increasingly replacing public sector services and administrators (Eubanks, 2017); and, although some of the threats to democracy are as old as the system itself, new advances in technology and privacy (Eubanks, 2017) coupled with increasing demands to provide more services with fewer public dollars (Brown & Potoski, 2003) have impacted the application of substantive ideals of democracy within the public sector.…”

Section: The Rise Of "Real Democracy"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Service-Learning as a Tool to Cultivate Democratically Minded Students: A Conceptual Framework

Lebovits

Bharath

2019

J. Public Nonprof Aff.

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The field of public administration is intrinsically linked to a substantive experience of democracy and the development of a democratic community. This article employs John Dewey’s constructivist pedagogical approach to make the case that service-learning can be a vehicle to cultivate students’ understanding of democracy as a movement toward a common good. We use the term “real democracy” to describe the ways that substantive practices of Dewey’s communal democracy materialize in today’s public sector. We highlight the concerns “real democracy” presents for public administrators before arguing that Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs are a particularly suitable setting to cultivate Dewey’s constructivist approach to democratic education given that the spirit of the approach is already well-aligned with MPA core competencies. Finally, we present public administration educators with a democratic service-learning conceptual framework that ties together pedagogical goals, service-learning design and outcomes, and Dewey’s constructivist, democratic student experience.

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Section: The Rise Of "Real Democracy"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Service-Learning as a Tool to Cultivate Democratically Minded Students: A Conceptual Framework

Lebovits

Bharath

2019

J. Public Nonprof Aff.

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“…Often, they entered the field of battle as it had been defined by Bannon. Scholars condemned attacks on the administrative state, offered defenses of the administrative state, and explained why the administrative state was “something to celebrate” (Heidari‐Robinson ; Michaels , 40; Rahman , 1675; Resh ; Roberts ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Should We Defend the Administrative State?

Roberts

2020

Public Administration Review

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Troubled by actions of the Donald Trump administration, some academics have defended the administrative state. This may be a mistake. The scholarly definition of the administrative state has shifted over decades, and today scholarly usage of the term often diverges substantially from popular usage. When academics invoke the concept, they may unwittingly trigger negative associations in the minds of nonacademics and defeat their own cause. This mistake is easily avoided, because academics often do not need to talk about the administrative state at all. Research would be improved by using different terms to describe three distinct ideas: the state, administrative systems within the state, and the administrative state, which is best understood as a type of state that emerged at a specific moment in American history. If academics want to defend the public service in the realm of politics, it would be better to do so in those terms, rather than using a phrase that often triggers fears about big and irresponsible government.

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“…The authors survey public affairs faculty to learn their views on empathy and how they teach the value to their students. In issue's last article specifically on trust, Roberts (2018) details how the nation's alarmingly political polarization is harming the public's trust in bureaucracy and public servants. To address this "moral" issue, Roberts argues that public affairs programs need to teach current and future public servants about political polarization and how to push back against organizational misconduct.…”

Section: Introduction To the Issuementioning

confidence: 99%