Keys for Locks in Administrative Argument

Abstract

Developments in public administration are better understood as rhetorical rather than scientific in Herbert Simon's meaning. Administrative arguments succeed by using the six keys to acceptance of classical rhetoric: symmetry, metaphor, ambiguity, private interest presented as public good, selective use of information, and suspension of disbelief To test this proposition, we compare managerialism with cameralism and utilitarianism, which were earlier attempts at new public administration. Cameralisi, which was developed by a body of academics and practitioners who might be termed consultants in today's nomenclature, influenced administrative developments in central Europe from the 17th century extending its force even to Russia. Utilitarianism was the dominant social and moral philosophy of Victorian England. Its best known exponents were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, who exercised a great influence on their contemporaries. This article demonstrates that managerialism, cameralism, and utilitarianism each used the six keys to acceptance of rhetoric to advance its case and concludes that changes in fashion in public administration are achieved by rhetoric, not by scientific analysis of data.

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