WINTER 2012 - National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and ...

Moving Forward
Federalist 51 details how checks and balances and the overlapping of powers are
hedges against despotism, something the Founders understood and feared.
After discussing these works, I would have students read and discuss Rohr’s
To Run a Constitution: The Legitimacy of the Administrative State (1986). Rohr’s
writings provide a deep analysis of the difficult, multifaceted, and widely
misunderstood role public administrators play in the complex American system
of governing, which must, in turn, operate within and be shaped by a (generally)
capitalist economy. I would clarify that while we typically speak of our political
system and capitalist economy as distinct entities, they are deeply entwined, and
this is why it is better to think in terms of a capitalist political economy.
To clarify the ethical implications of our complex political system for public
administrators, I would have students read Rohr’s Public Service, Ethics, and
Constitutional Practice (1998). Then, as a follow-up to Rohr, I would have them
read portions of Bertelli and Lynn’s Madison’s Managers: Public Administration
and the Constitution (2006), a text detailing how public administrators must
respect the idea of overlapping powers as well as commit themselves to the values
of judgment, equilibrium, prudence, and managerial accountability.
It is essential that public administration students understand not only the
constitutional limits on their actions and discretion but also the options left to
them to define and pursue the broadest possible public interest. This is true in
all forms of government but particularly in one like ours, where powers of the
branches overlap and often counterbalance one another. Our political culture in
relation to this fact is not well understood by the public and, unfortunately, not
sufficiently by enough public administrators. Many public administrators do not,
or would rather not, assume the hazards and responsibilities of discovering and
advancing the broadest possible public interest. But they can; and to do so, they
must be what I call “artful dodgers” because in a government of contrapuntal
power and multiple decision points, persons of higher socioeconomic status and
wealth have greater access and means of leverage. To temper such influence, we
need public administrators willing to be artful dodgers in pursuing the greatest
possible equity among our citizens. Developing such artful dodgers begins with
their understanding our widely misconstrued Constitution and the potential
latitude it gives them to mitigate the inequitable distribution of power favoring
those of higher socioeconomic levels. This can be risky and is not for the faint of
heart, but can be done.
Third, having made clear the complexity of our governmental apparatus
and the difficult, misunderstood, and denigrated role of public administration
in both the general economy and the American political system, I would use
this knowledge as a backdrop for helping students appreciate the difficulty
public administrators and citizens have in comprehending the relationship
between our political and economic systems. A key part of this association is
our general blindness to class or socioeconomic differences among citizens; we
Journal of Public Affairs Education 99