Further Reflections on Public Administration and the State

In the Public Administration and the State book, the author argued, firstly, that much of Americans literature in public administration, notwithstanding its frequent pretensions to political and ideological neutrality, articulates a vision of the state as a purposive association, that is to say, a state as an organization driven by some coherent set of substantive ends and organized and managed by a powerful teleocratic or purpose-driven government in pursuit of these ends. Moreover, he also argued that, because of the seriously fragmented character of their postmodern political culture, encouraging public administrators to pursue a vision of the state as a purposive association is potentially harmful in that it invites divisive administrative actions that sometimes ignore or trample on ends or values that are seen as important by particular groups or subcultures. Moreover, since writing his book, he has come to see more clearly their constitutional practices, in particular, as encouraging them to resolve conflicts among their rival values or conceptions of the good by means of politics and adversary argument rather than force.