David Oliver Kasdan

“Great Books” of Public Administration, 1990-2010 Revisiting Sherwood’s Survey in the Wake of Reinventing Government

Twenty years ago, Frank Sherwood attempted to identify the most influential book in public administration from 1940 to 1990. This article makes a modest attempt to recreate that study for the span of 1990 to 2010 with a striking difference in its results. Whereas Sherwood’s panel picked a book that was well liked and respected in the academic community, the current study produced a winning volume that was almost universally derided by the panel of public administration scholars. The study also revealed interesting side stories about the methodology for identifying influence, the state of academic publishing, and the future of books for the field public administration.

A Tale of Two Hatchet Men Emergency Financial Management in Michigan

Fiscal stress in local governments has reached catastrophic levels in Michigan, which has implemented emergency management legislation in an attempt to keep apace of the problems it faces, including Detroit’s bankruptcy. It is time to consider what kind of public administrator is needed to address the problems of modern fiscal distress. Whereas the political approaches and policies for emergency financial management across the country may differ, the emergency manager can still bring successful generalized approaches and practices to many problems. This research studies two such bureaucrats in Michigan, one who has been instrumental in the development of emergency management policy for decades and one who is bringing his skills in corporate bankruptcy counsel to task.

Emergency Management 2.0 This Time, It’s Financial

There are more causes of fiscal distress than remedies. A nascent field is emerging built on the practices utilized to confront fiscal distress. The usual method follows a federal structure in that the state has ultimate responsibility when local governments fail, leaving communities to live in a “new normal” of austere oversight. As more urban areas contend with extended economic downturns, political paralysis, and social apathy in the face of unsustainable governance, there is a need for a strategic approach to the administrative side of fiscal distress management. Although cutbacks, consolidations, and service reductions are the tactical tools of the trade, emergency financial management also requires a guiding strategy that protects the fundamental purpose and character of the local government. This article uses ideas from disaster management and the fiscal crises in Michigan to develop four key elements in a strategic approach to emergency financial management.

Considering socio-cultural factors of disaster risk management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between factors of socio-cultural contexts and disaster risk. Recent efforts by international organizations and research scholarship have emphasized that applying contextual understandings of human behavior can improve the effectiveness of disaster risk management (DRM). Design/methodology/approach – The research employs multiple correlation analysis to find significant relationships between two sources of socio-cultural data and the World Risk Index scores. Findings – There are interesting relationships between various measures of socio-cultural context and disaster risk, such as correlations with levels of individualism, self-expression, and secular-rational values. Research limitations/implications – While using the broadest sample available with the data sources, generalizations about the relationships must be tempered as inherently anecdotal and needing greater depth of study. The national level of analysis is controversial. Practical...

One More Look at (Neo-)Pragmatism in Public Administration Seeing the Forest and the Trees

The continued interest in (neo-)pragmatism for public administration is a validation of the very kind of democratic discourse that the philosophy holds dear. Yet the back-and-forth also reinforces a critique coming from one of its major figures, Richard Rorty: We seem to be jockeying for position in an analytic language game that will never have a winner. The matter may not be “settled” per se, but the groundwork of (neo-)pragmatism’s use in public administration is practically done and, in the spirit of one of its very basic ideas, administrators should sally forth and see how it works.

From K-Pop to K-Preparedness: Korea confronts disaster reduction

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe a recent effort by the South Korean Government to stimulate a domestic disaster risk reduction (DRR) technology industry for the export market. The project is a novel form of public-private partnership (PPP) that simultaneously fulfills the mandates of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction while promoting Korea’s economic development agenda. Design/methodology/approach The research is primarily a review study of the Global DRR Technology project as it is situated in the literature of PPP research from both the public administration and disaster management disciplines. Findings Korea’s approach to address DRR through a PPP targeting the needs of East Asian countries is unique. The overall effectiveness of the effort will take time to assess, but the model is an interesting and potentially fruitful mean of advancing DRR technology dissemination. Practical implications Korea may position itself as a global leader of DRR technology through this effort in terms of both market share and support of the Sendai Framework’s objectives. If successful, the PPP approach may be adopted as a viable means of improving DRR for other countries. Social implications Using PPPs for various aspects of DRR can be win-win situation for economic development and disaster management outcomes. Originality/value This paper presents a distinct application of the PPP model for DRR that other countries may appreciate and/or adopt for their own DRR needs.

Public administration, social progress, and the utopian null: Reconfiguring the hypothesis test for neopragmatist bureaucracy

Abstract One way of conceptualizing a utopian society is through the liberal perspective, positing that policy should be cruelty-free and the role of governance is to facilitate social progress through improved justice. Public administration has implicitly supported this idea since the advent of New Public Administration and the inclusion of ‘equity’ as a pillar of governance. Justice serves as the foundation for determining a utopian notion of social progress, wherein our administrative decisions focus on moving us away from conditions of cruelty toward a fairer alternative. This article develops a path for public administration to approach an idea of utopia based on the neopragmatist philosophy of Richard Rorty. It envisions policy decisions framed as a ‘flipped’ hypothesis test, where the alternative hypothesis is the condition of cruelty we are currently experiencing and the null hypothesis is the policy aimed to alleviate conditions of cruelty and facilitate social progress.

The Social Roots of Risk: Producing Disasters, Promoting Resilience

Thank you very much for reading the social roots of risk producing disasters promoting resilience. As you may know, people have search numerous times for their chosen readings like this the social roots of risk producing disasters promoting resilience, but end up in malicious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some harmful bugs inside their desktop computer.

Cruel to Be Kind: A Neopragmatist Approach to Teaching Statistics for Public Administration Students

Many public administration students harbor doubts about their ability to learn statistics. Adoption of a tenet of neopragmatism can realign statistics with students’ cognitive interests and frame it as a method to advance social progress away from cruelty. This approach is rooted in John Dewey’s fusion of educational philosophy with scientific method and Richard Rorty’s postmodern upgrade of classical pragmatism. Neopragmatism recognizes that there are linguistic and contextual challenges to social science research, and that statistics is “translating” what happens around us into a language based on the math logic that is actually common to many of our social phenomena. This eases students’ arithmophobia so they can see the greater challenge as analyzing governance issues to take advantage of the explanatory powers of statistics. Students then focus on figuring out the words, rather than the numbers, that are necessary to improve administrative decisions and reduce cruelty in the world.

Integrative process: Follettian thinking from ontology to administration

Any consideration of Mary Parker Follett necessarily entails three dominant aspects: her contribution to progressive era values, her influence on women’s rights, and the lessons for administration ...