The Recovery of Civism in Public Administration

Abstract

Something is wrong. Virtually all of our institutions seem to be in trouble. The family is deteriorating, schools seem to be ineffective, there is deep suspicion of most large-scale organizations including industry, business, and government. There is dwindling support for churches. Crime is alarmingly common. We are balkanized into racial, economic, ethnic, demographic, and sexual divisions. Privatism, greed, self-interest, and self-indulgence challenge the notion of community.' Old assumptions of trust and integrity have slipped into a quagmire of litigiousness which jams the courts. The economy sputters, managing to violate Keynesian notions of the relationship between inflation, unemployment, and interest rates. Government is at the center of virtually all of these problems. The people, the citizens, are very perceptive and know that something is wrong. Survey research indicates a sharp decline in confidence in government as well as most of our institutions.' While we continue to enjoy great political freedom, the lack of support for and confidence in our institutions results in despair and, in some cases, fear. Despair and fear are crippling emotions and can result in one of the oldest of political axioms: given the choice, people will be tempted to trade some freedom for greater security.3 That special American genius for maintaining widespread personal freedom while building public and private institutions that work is being seriously tested, because our institutions are not working as well as they once did. Translating the genius for building institutions to genius in changing institutions to meet new and different circumstances, while preserving individual freedom, is the challenge of our time. The media ordinarily present announcements of declining public support for public institutions in an alarming tone which the people receive with a combination of alarm and despair. Something would be wrong if the people were not responding with expressions of declining respect or support for government institutions. The fact is that our public institutions are not coping. We should be seriously concerned if the people, the citizens, thought that everything was fine. Everything is not fine; the people see that and are responding. That response takes many forms; some are negative and some are positive. The negative responses include seeking to blame government employees, the bureaucracy, for problems in governmental effectiveness. Both

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