Postmodern Public Administration: Toward Discourse - Softcover

Fox, Charles Johnson; Miller, Hugh T.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803958021 ISBN 13: 9780803958029

Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc, 1994

Synopsis

"This volume crisply reviews the phenomenological and linguistic turns in recent policy analysis." --S. Plotkin in Choice Charles Fox and Hugh Miller attempt to redirect current thinking about public policy and administration in light of the postmodern condition. Postmodern Public Administration rejects existing and accepted theories such as public management doctrine, constitutionalism, and communitarianism in favor of constructing a "discourse" theory of public administration. Not only does this work provide an exciting and provocative new look at public administration in postmodern times, but it also provides an invaluable, thorough, and clear review of the doctrines and philosophies that have, to date, dominated the field. Students and scholars of public administration and political science will find this volume to be a comprehensive review of existing philosophies, and a valuable new contribution to the field. "The bold purpose of this little book is to put the study of policy and administration on a postmodernist footing. For Charles J. Fox and Hugh T. Miller policy is less the expression of formal organization than the ′recursive practice′ of highly charged ′public energy fields,′ loosely configured ′nodes′ where officials, experts, journalists, and activists ′socially construct′ policy amidst struggles to capture meaning. The authors seek to establish conditions of rational, democratic discussion in arenas now dominated by illusory forms of symbolic politics. ′Discourse theory′ helps by providing criteria for rational ′policy conversation.′ This volume crisply reviews the phenomenological and linguistic turns in recent policy analysis; as brief introduction to these fields, chapters 3-5 are very useful. . . .Recommend for graduate students and upper-division undergraduates." --Choice

Edition details

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803958021
• ISBN 13: 9780803958029
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192