The hubris of public administration

Abstract

The rise of the global protest movement against government and maladministration should give enormous pause to those in our field who believe that there are administrative reforms that can – on their own – create democratic governance. This article demonstrates that it is precisely this kind of thinking about employing tools of administration that drive the kinds of disconnects we are seeing across the world between citizens and authorities. This kind of thinking represents the ultimate hubris of the study of public administration.

Keywords:

• protests
• democracy
• trust
• public sector governance
• comparative public administration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.