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Is There a Spirit of Governance?
Author(s) -
Koppell Jonathan G. S.,
Auer Jennifer Claire
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2012.02668.x
Subject(s) - corporate governance , administration (probate law) , nexus (standard) , value (mathematics) , position (finance) , sociology , political science , public administration , law , law and economics , environmental ethics , management , economics , philosophy , finance , machine learning , computer science , embedded system
In his classic work, H. George Frederickson offers a robust call to value anew the spirit of public administration. This was offered not as an abstract treatise but as a reaction to the evolution of the practice of public administration that included institutions and approaches that stretched previous understanding of the field. Much about the constitution of the “spirit of public administration” is left abstract by Frederickson. It is something of a placeholder for the norms, values, and principles that are threatened by the ascendance of “governance.” In this article, the threat of an undermined spirit of administration in a governance era is considered with an attempt at greater specificity and concreteness than previous discussions. To the end of opening a more empirical exploration of the spirit–governance nexus, this article moves away from an either/or position and attempts to distill the highest risks of deterioration of spirit in the provision of public goods.