Active Duty: Public Administration as Democratic Statesmanship

In Active Duty: Public Administration as Democratic Statesmanship, a distinguished group of contributors examines the role of the American civil service under the Constitution. The common concern that unites the otherwise diverse approaches of the authors is the conception of public administration as a particular form of political activity. The contributors relate administrative issues to the broader questions of political life, such as political judgment and responsibility, the Constitution and constitutionalism, and the promotion of human liberty and the common good. They aim to encourage the administrator to become a democratic statesman. Present and prospective American civil servants, as well as political scientists and political philosophers, will find this book of interest.

In Active Duty, a distinguished group of contributors examines the role of the American civil service under the Constitution.

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An introduction to the American civil service that attempts to re-link the concept of public administration to an understanding of it as a particular kind of political activity. Fourteen contributions are organized into sections which explore present-day concerns of public administration such as policy deliberation in the case of global warming, the notion of impartiality, and the impact of Theodore Lowi's The End of Liberalism; constitutional issues including the views of The Federalist and Woodrow Wilson towards the proper place of public administration; and the relationship between public administration and personal responsibility. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Peter Augustine Lawler is professor of political science at Berry College in Georgia. His most recent book is Poets, Princes, and Private Citizens (Rowman & Littlefield), which he edited with Joseph Knippenberg. Robert Martin Schaefer is associate professor of political science at the University of Mobile. He edited The American Experiment (Rowman & Littlefield), with Peter Lawler. David Lewis Schaefer is professor of political science at the College of the Holy Cross. He is the author of The Political Philosophy of Montaigne.