The Ethics of Dissent: Can President Trump Survive Guerrilla Government?

O’Leary, Rosemary

doi:10.1080/10841806.2017.1309803

Cited by 15 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…There are still few works on how bureaucrats work in an activist way on a daily basis, on how they influence public policy, and on what conditions their activist actions (ABERS, 2020). , 2021BANASZAK, 2010;FERREIRA, 2016;LAVEE and COHEN, 2019;O'LEARY, 2017;OLSSON, 2016;OLSSON and HYSING, 2012;PENNA, 2017;RICH, 2013;RUIZ, 2020;SANTIAGO, 2017;SILVA, 2012;SILVEIRA, 2018;VILAÇA, 2020).…”

Section: Activist Strategies In Policymakingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Activism Among Bureaucrats: Creative Social Housing Work in a Conservative Institutional Setting

Silveira

2022

Bras. political sci. rev.

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How can activist bureaucrats unexpectedly influence policy outcomes? What strategies do these actors adopt in order to defend and implement public policies in institutional settings unfavorable to their ideas? How do the individual trajectories of activist bureaucrats influence their strategies and repertoires of action? Drawing from the literature on institutional activism, this article shows how bureaucrats worked as activists to create and institutionalize participatory arenas in slum upgrading projects, within an institutional setting adverse to popular participation. Our research was carried out through interviews with bureaucrats and local community actors, as well as participant observation. The main results of our study were: the identification of four distinct profiles of bureaucrats and four main activist strategies used by them, as well as the identification of bureaucrats' profiles more associated with the adoption of certain practices -so that specific profiles of bureaucrats have influenced the policy-making process in different ways, according to their relational skills, previous trajectories, and worldviews. These findings suggest that the individual characteristics of bureaucrats are important to understanding the variations in bureaucrats' activist strategies within the state, as well as how bureaucrats can influence policymaking in heterogeneous ways.

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Section: Activist Strategies In Policymakingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Activism Among Bureaucrats: Creative Social Housing Work in a Conservative Institutional Setting

Silveira

2022

Bras. political sci. rev.

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“…Decades later, Rosemary O’Leary warned President Donald Trump to listen to the criticism of career federal employees concerning his agenda or the possibility face having to face guerilla government tactics from careers federal employees angered by the actions of the Trump administration. O’Leary (2017a) found “four primary conditions that tend to yield situations that encourage the festering of guerrilla government activities” (p. 75). The list included (1) “[w]hen internal opportunities for voicing one’s dissent are limited or decline,” (2) “[w]hen the perceived cost of voicing one’s opposition is greater than the perceived cost of guerrilla government activities,” (3) “[w]hen the issues involved are personalized or the subject of deeply held values,” (4) “[w]hen quitting one’s job or leaving one’s agency is seen as having a destructive (rather than a salutary) effect on the policies of concern” (O’Leary, 2017a, p. 75).…”

Section: Public Service and The Protection Of Constitutional Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…She has provided a comprehensive list of guerrilla government tactics by public employees. The list includes (1) “[o]bey your superiors in public, but disobey them in private,” (2), “[g]host-write letters, testimony, and studies for supportive interest groups,” (3) “[f]ail to correct superiors’ mistakes: let them fall,” (4) “[n]eglect policies and directives you disagree with—stall,” (5) “[f]ail to implement orders you think are unfair,” (6) “[h]old clandestine meetings to plot a unified staff strategy,” (7) “[s]ecretly contact members of Congress and other elected officials, as well as their staffs, in an effort to cultivate them as allies,” (8), “[b]uild public–private partnerships,” (9) “[b]uild partnerships among entities at all levels of government,” (10), “[f]orge links with outside groups: other professionals, nongovernmental organizations, concerned citizens,” (11) “[c]ultivate positive relationships with the media; leak information to the media, from informal tips to formal press releases,” and (12), “[c]ultivate positive relationships with interest groups” (O’Leary, 2017a, p. 73).…”

Section: The Suppression Of Organizational Dissent and Public Managem...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Democracy at Risk: The Public Employee Freedom of Speech Crisis

Roberts

2022

Administration & Society

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The article argues that the Pickering/Connick/Garcetti line of cases defining the First Amendment freedom of speech rights of public employees provides them little protection when they engage in organizational dissent. The article explains that the U.S. Supreme Court has embraced a managerial approach to the freedom of speech rights of public employees because of its belief that organizational dissent may seriously undermine the efficiency and effectiveness of public organizations. Due to this fact, the article argues that public employees must develop a comprehensive understanding of First Amendment freedom of speech jurisprudence to maximize their protection from retaliation.

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“…Wald identified a dozen common ethical obligations experienced by public administrators (p. 103). These included the Constitution, Law, Nation or Country, Democracy, Organizational/Bureaucratic Norms, Profession and Professionalism, Family and Friends, Self, Middle-Range Collectives, Public Interest/General Welfare, Humanity or the World, and Religion or God (O’Leary, 2017, p. 67). Faced with blowing the whistle on his or her organization, for instance, a career public service might decide to do so because it might lead to the loss of the employee’s job which might put the employee’s family in jeopardy.…”

Section: Safeguarding the Public Trust And The Administrative Presidencymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Administrative Presidency and Federal Service

Roberts

2021

The American Review of Public Administration

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Through the 20th and early 21st century, the United States has seen the growth of the administrative presidency. As political polarization has made it much more difficult for a presidential administration to push public policy initiatives through Congress, presidential administrations have become much more dependent on executive orders, policy statements, federal rulemaking, and nonenforcement policies to implement their agenda. Presidential administrations have also attempted to exert much greater control over the actions of federal employees with policymaking and policy implementation responsibilities. The article argues that the modern administrative presidency has become a serious threat to the nation’s democratic values and institutions. The article also argues that in the wrong hands, the administrative state may do great harm. Finally, the article argues that the discipline of public administration must end its love affair with the administrative presidency. The danger of misuse of the administrative state has just become too serious to permit presidential administrations to coerce career civil servants to put the ideological interests of a President over the public interest. To help control this serious problem, the article argues that the discipline of public administration should help to empower federal employees to serve as guardians of constitutional values by providing them the tools necessary to uncover and make known instances of abuse of power by presidential administrations intent upon ignoring the constitutional foundations of the administrative state.

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The Ethics of Dissent: Can President Trump Survive Guerrilla Government?

Cited by 15 publications

References 41 publications

Activism Among Bureaucrats: Creative Social Housing Work in a Conservative Institutional Setting

Activism Among Bureaucrats: Creative Social Housing Work in a Conservative Institutional Setting

Democracy at Risk: The Public Employee Freedom of Speech Crisis

The Administrative Presidency and Federal Service

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