The Language of Public Administration

Abstract

Farmer, David John (1995). The Language of Public Administration. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 314 pages, $29.95 (paperback), ISBN 0-8173-0784-2. In The Language of Public Administration, David John Farmer indicates that public administration theory is a language used by scholars to communicate ideas and construct solutions to problems. It is evident that, since scholars need language to think and converse, they are necessarily confined to the limitations of their language. Farmer maintains that, since the language of public administration is currently limited, public administration theory is also limited in addressing the scope, size, functioning, and nature of public bureaucracy. The purpose of his book, as a result, is to expand the language of public administration so that public bureaucracy can be transformed a more positive force. Rational thought, as described by Max Weber, is the fundamental ingredient that separates modern scholars from the assumptions and beliefs proposed by thinkers prior to the modern age. For Farmer, rational thought of modernity has placed boundaries on the language of public administration. Nevertheless, modern scholars endure in addressing the transformation of public bureaucracy into a productive organizational structure under the constraints of rational thought. In response to this occurrence, the author presents an innovative study that confronts the restrictions of theory built on rational thought and provides public administration theorists with an alternative for capacity building in confronting the concerns of public bureaucracy. The creative approach submitted is the employment of a reflexive language paradigm. Farmer asserts that, as modernity is displaced with postmodernity, an opportunity will be created to expand the language of public administration. Rather than dropping the old for the new, however, he recommends a reflexive language where the current language of public administration will coexist with the expanded language under postmodernity. Although difficult to explain, postmodernity represents a break from modernity like rationality represents a break from premodernity. To establish a framework for his paradigm, Farmer begins by scrutinizing the limits of five aspects of public administration language in its modern form: particularism, scientism, technologism, enterprise, and hermeneutics. Before the aspects are critiqued, credibility is obtained by covering the functions of each aspect as it relates to public administration theory. This provides the reader with a deeper understanding of why certain limits presently exist. …

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