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

Moving Forward
by Looking Back
Gary L. Wamsley
Virginia Tech
Center for Administration and Policy
ABSTRACT
A retired professor reflects on his lower socioeconomic origins in considering
how he would teach public administration differently were he to return to
the classroom full-time. He indicates he would give greater attention to the
role the embryonic practice of public administration played in efforts to
mitigate the injurious effects of capitalism’s emergence. He also challenges
today’s public administrators to assume an even more difficult role by
acting to offset contemporary capitalism’s harmful effects on government
and the broader public interest. He says they can do this by using the
latitude granted them by the Constitution’s overlapping powers; and he
suggests that whenever possible, public administrators should use their
discretion to further socioeconomic equity among the people they serve.
As editor of Administration & Society, I was interested in Kenneth Oldfield’s
contribution to the section of the journal called Disputatio Sine Fine, Latin
for “argument without end.” 1 His contributions resulted in an extended and
interesting debate over the need for, and appropriateness of, increasing diversity
among public administration faculty on the basis of their socioeconomic origins,
as well as the problems encountered with such an approach. Although at first
my interest in the topic consisted primarily in editing a good debate, I was
pleased for Professor Oldfield when he told me he had obtained a commitment
to publish a collection of papers from various public administration professors
of lower socioeconomic origins. Keeping up with Administration & Society
consumes most of my time, though, so I did not give the subject a lot more
thought. Thus I was startled when he later wrote to me and said something I
had mentioned in our past correspondence led him to believe my socioeconomic
origins were at the lower end of the spectrum, and he asked if I would contribute
to the volume. After considerable thought and some hesitation, I agreed.
JPAE 18(1), 87–106
Journal of Public Affairs Education 87