Abstract
One of the major criticisms leveled at public administration scholarship is its latent bias toward philosophies and pracices from Western traditions. As more governments in non-Western arenas push forward with reforms to try and improve service provision and professionalism within their organizations, this bias creates well-documented disconnects between proposed “best practices” and their anticipated outcomes. In order to counter this bias, it would be useful to present and compare some of the more influential philosophies that drive codes of conduct within public organizations that are not well known within the context of Western public administration. In this chapter, I will focus on some foundational philosophies both from within and outside of the Western canon, and the links, broken and otherwise, between these philosophies and democratic contexts. I propose that this comparison leaves fertile ground for future studies of the nexus between culture and administration, and the implications for how public servants define themselves and prepare for the tasks ahead in an increasingly interconnected and global context.
Keywords
Notes
- 1.
For a truly sobering example of what was being attempted by governments with less than stellar histories in their former colonies, the manuals that were put together by the Overseas Development Institute in the U.K during the 1960s provide some insight (Williams 1965). For a more updated and much less self-aware rendition, there is the highly entertaining if it weren’t so tone-deaf tome (one of a series published by Rand Corporation) written by former Bush Ambassador to the European Union (1991–1993), James Dobbins. Admittedly, Dobbins had help, but the volume is literally titled, “The Beginner’s Guide to Nation-Building,” notably published in 2007.
- 2.
One might argue that Alain Prost, the Formula One driver and winner of multiple championships exemplified the idea of Confucian restraint. He was well known for going no faster than absolutely necessary to secure his leading position. One might also argue that his teammate and rival, Ayrton Senna, was the Li Bai of Formula One (Parry 2016).
- 3.
To illustrate how far afield officials at the top of an empire that had started to decay could wander, there are multiple historical example to draw on within the long history of China. But one of the most telling comes from its protectorate, Korea, during the end of the Chosun Dynasty in the late 1860s and 70s. The then-ruler known as the Taiwenkun, never left his palace, and “[t]o spare him the discomfort of visiting Seoul, a model village was built in a ravine of the palace gardens where His Majesty might study the life of his subjects in a natural-environment ‘zoo’” (Crofts and Buchanan 1958, p. 227).
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Tao, J.L. (2020). Deep Thinkers and Their Influence on the Conception of the Public Servant: Reconciling Philosophical Roots. In: Sullivan, H., Dickinson, H., Henderson, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Public Servant. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03008-7_92-1
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