It might be argued that the public sector is so different that generic or private sector models of administration and management are irrelevant to its operations. Let us not dismiss the public sector. Not so fast. In Arizona, for example, our training focus has to be cognizant of our state needs. Hopefully we have to confront the idol of the market, especially the false narrative that the public sector is irrelevant or that government is a problem. This argument is strong. It is based on the false basis of managerialism. And that feeling can confuse those of us who study and practice public administration.
I want to believe that each day we dress up to go to our offices, we do not lose the first lessons in the seminar on public administration. We have to insist that the public sector can learn from private business models but it can’t be absorbed by business interests! As McSwite (2002, p. 88) posited, “one reason that the demand for public agencies to be more like private sector companies is not only impossible to achieve but also undesirable is that, as people in the field of public administration know, the very people who make this demand (politicians) block it from happening.”
And for those in senior management positions, we must not allow ourselves to be overtaken by a pervasive mood of desperation. Some falsely believe that our profession has an expiry date. They are wrong. Picture this example from historical records that explains one of the many reasons for bureaucratic growth. The transition from horses to motorized vehicles brought about an increase in traffic accidents. As early as 1908, for example, the city of Detroit was grappling with numerous deaths and injuries from auto accidents. By 1917, over one thousand car accidents were reported in that city alone. The leadership (call them public administrators) responded by introduction of stop signs, lane markings, and traffic signals. Also, Detroit was among the first cities to establish a police unit dedicated to ensuring public safety on the roads. It is not lost to us that many were called to public service.
Fast forward, we have seen the chaos and order of the internet age. And still, technological singularity has provided us with opportunities to ride on driverless vehicles, watch our children play with robots, and, here at NAU, watch six-wheeled robots deliver food to our offices. Can you imagine if we allow twenty private companies to compete against Starship Technologies? Wouldn’t we need some form of regulation to manage the ensuing chaos on our streets and sidewalks? [insert photo of Starship robot]
And there is still more to come. SpaceX and other corporations have launched numerous satellites into orbit to expand internet access globally. The “final frontier” is currently experiencing a proliferation of “orbital space junk.” We already have thousands of non-operational satellites including rocket bodies and payloads. Although NASA has kept tabs on thousands of satellites, we are going to confront the debris and potential collision of thousands of private and international government hardware orbiting spaces. The outer space and stars “up there” are the new frontier calling for administrative action as different players compete for commercial gain. Reports show that some issues mirror the confusion and chaos of the transition from horses to automobiles.
We have heard it said may times, policy and law are not always developed at the pace of technological advances. Policy and law fall behind, most of the time. It follows, therefore, that local space laws are in the realm of imagination, as in the hypothetical case of lunar traffic accidents and regulation of pollution of space. This reality suggests we will not only need policies to structure and confine actions of competing private interests but also new kinds of administrators to police the new world “out there.” So, we will still need public administrators in these 2020s and beyond! I dare say, the new decade is certainly one of opportunities for re-skilling and engagement with an exciting smart and data occupied world.
As it is, public administration is a calling. The distinct aspect of being a professional called to serve the public, our minds have to be dominated by a moral choice to serve in the public interest and not for private gain. We should not be terrified by those who seek profit and instead recognize that their work is important for different reasons than ours. Their identity is grounded in the idea of profits and ours is not. But we have to work together for our common good, within a constitutional and free-market system. As Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman (2020) reminds us in his book Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future, government excels in so many areas of the economy. It is government that will protect us from the Madoff economy, crushing debt, negative effects of trade wars, climate change nightmares, tax scams. And yes, from the dangers of “paranoid style politics.” Still, we need politics to set the agenda for health care and social security. In his April 10, 2015 New York Times article “Where Government Excels,” reproduced in Arguing with Zombies, Krugman posits that we need social security, in part because ordinary people are not perfectly rational and farsighted. Only in an idealized world would 25-year old workers “base their decisions about how much to save on a realistic assessment of what they will need to live comfortably when they’re in their 70s.” The point, is, the work of government continues to live on.
Managing people who work for government—and managing contracts, in cases where other alternative providers do the job—will remain a noble task. While we embrace some performance metrics and systems that we have borrowed from the private sectors, we should not necessarily think that the requisite skills are from the private practice.
And when we politicize issues, let us remind ourselves that political leaders are there to serve the public interest—a time-honored precept. As administrators, we have to accept the realities of politics and the struggle for the authoritative allocation of values are a part of the administrative ecology. This means we also have to embrace the fact that public service is a fundamentally political instrument. So, we not only acknowledge the inevitability of political processes but offer unique administrative skills to solve societal problems. This leads me to remind us of the goals of our education.
The Department of Politics and International Affairs (PIA) is a unique place that nurtures students of public administration to be exposed to the various political issues of the day and how practitioners are uniquely positioned to implement policies that improve our quality of life.
By taking a few courses from political scientists, students in our program are able to recognize the applications of political concepts to the actualization of policy goals. And, for us, that is the NAU difference! Thankfully, we as part of the family of small MPA programs that as Professor Michael Ford of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh explains will continue to thrive amidst existing challenges of budget cuts and increased teaching loads. We have become creative and moved our MPA program online. As professor Ford says, “our diversity is our strength.” At NAU, we are an active part of the statewide initiative to prepare Arizona’s future public service leaders.
For example, PIA has over the years equipped its graduate students with unmatched knowledge of how maintaining a sustainable environment is linked to our survival on earth. In Arizona, for example, we are helping prepare public officials who will simultaneously protect the state’s natural beauty in a just manner and create jobs. Our program is uniquely positioned to be part of the expertise to keep Phoenix, Yuma, Flagstaff, and other cities free from pollutants that cause lung diseases. We will continue to offer courses that encourage and promote sustainable management of the state’s natural resources. Environment will remain one of our foci areas as will diversity and development.
Beyond building careers in the public service, our program has a proven track record of successful preparation of some of our MPA students for research and the academy. As educators, our graduates are making a difference globally. Scores of our MPA students have moved on to become leaders in the education sector and we are immensely proud of all of them.
– Dr. Eric E. Otenyo
