In Service of the Leviathan: Democracy, Ethics and the Potential for Administrative Evil in the New Public Management

Lisa A. Zanetti · Guy B. Adams

36 citations0/0 files storedAdministrative Theory & Praxis

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Public Policy and Administration Research Public Administration and Governance Foucault, Power, and Ethics

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that the practice of New Public Management (NPM) subverts democracy by undermining the social contract and substituting a market mentality with very different normative expectations. Like late modern Hobbesians, those who advocate NPM offer a vision of public service in which democratic politics and ethics become increasingly irrelevant. In this scenario, the market becomes the new leviathan, which we have no choice but to obey. The values of this sovereign-competition, exchange values, transaction costs, and survival of the fittest-have driven most remaining vestiges of democracy from the public square. Such an atmosphere leaves us disturbingly vulnerable to the practice of administrative evil.

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References

1991Postmodernism, or, The cultural logic of late capitalism 1992Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism 2006The structural transformation of the public sphere 1977The Rise of Professionalism 1965The Technological Society 1991Modernity and the Holocaust.1990Modernity and the Holocaust 1954The Technological Society

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2004Expanding the View of Performance Appraisal by Introducing Social Justice Concerns 2019Why the New Public Management is Obsolete 2011Governance and government in public administration 2017“Saving” the City: Harland Bartholomew and Administrative Evil in St. Louis 2024Beyond administrative burden: Activation and administrative harm 2011La nouvelle gestion publique et l'accroissement des marges de manœuvre : un terreau propice au développement de l'éthique?

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