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Guerrilla Statesmanship: Constitutionalizing an Ethic of Dissent
Author(s) -
Newswander Chad B.
Publication year - 2014
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/puar.12293
Subject(s) - dissent , law , supreme court , citizen journalism , scope (computer science) , power (physics) , political science , government (linguistics) , sociology , perspective (graphical) , first amendment , law and economics , politics , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , programming language
According to judicial precedents, administrators informed by their expertise can speak on issues of public concern under First Amendment protections. In one sense, they could dissent by working against their employers in an attempt to direct issues of public concern through an educational function. The power to act like a statesman in raising such issues allows administrators to lead from behind and in front, as long as certain judicial thresholds are met. However, the U.S. Supreme Court recently moved to tighten the scope of such activity. This article assesses how an ethic of dissent has been translated into a constitutional perspective that at first was moderately constrained and later became very restricted. While the move to limit an ethic of dissent provides necessary constraints, it also may have weakened administrators’ ability to perform necessary statesmanship acts rooted in guerrilla government to achieve the common good.