Colluding to Create the American Society for Public Administration and the Consequent Collateral Damage

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mordecai Lee
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Research Association ◽  
Collateral Damage ◽  
University Of Chicago ◽  
Careful Planning ◽  
Doctoral Candidate ◽  
Revisionist History ◽  
Ex Nihilo ◽  
American Society

The American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) was founded in December 1939. This did not occur ex nihilo. Rather, it was the desired end-result of an elaborate and detailed collusion by some early public administration professionals including Louis Brownlow, Luther Gulick, and William Mosher. With patience and careful planning beginning in 1937, they designed a scenario that would, as the events they were catalyzing unfolded, undermine the Governmental Research Association (GRA) and provide justification for the new organization. This pre-birth campaign is often skipped over lightly in histories of ASPA. In particular, their collusion caused some serious collateral damage, destroying the academic career of University of Chicago doctoral candidate Norman Gill. This revisionist history explores the detailed maneuverings of the leaders of the nascent ASPA against GRA and how they, seemingly obliviously, wrecked the intended professional path of an innocent researcher who worked for them.

Public Administration at the Movies

Public Voices ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Holley ◽  
Rebecca K Lutte
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Public Employees ◽  
Paper Briefly ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
The Public ◽  
Popular Films ◽  
Positive Message ◽  
American Society

This paper briefly summarizes evidence for the influence of popular films on public perception of government and on public policy.  Two films examined through the lens of public administration, and the lessons they teach about public administration, are exposed.  One film, Ghostbusters conveys a strongly negative image, and the other, A Thousand Heroes a strongly positive message.  Only Ghostbusters was and remains popular and profitable.  Public information efforts by government and the public administration community have been limited or reactive.  The authors argue for the increased support for public information initiatives such as those of the Public Employees Roundtable (PER) and  the American Society of Public Administration (ASPA).

Servant Leaders in Public Service: Christian Spirituality in Practice

Public Voices ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Willa Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Servant Leadership ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Christian Spirituality ◽  
Servant Leaders ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
American Society

Relying on a survey of members of the American Society for Public Administration, servant leadership is examined through the lens of Christian spirituality.  Findings indicate that citizens can have confidence in the dedication and committment of public servants.

Articulating an alternative: the contribution of John Burton

1995 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Dunn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Society ◽  
Research Association ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Peace Research ◽  
George Mason University

Taken together, these four volumes comprise the Conflict Series, and represent the fruits of work completed by John Burton, with others, in the last years of his formal academic career in the United States, at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, and at the Center for Conflict Resolution at George Mason University in Virginia. Burton has now ‘retired’ (though he still writes vigorously) to his native Australia, and that event, together with the appearance of these works, prompts this synoptic evaluation of them in the context of Burton's life and previous work. What makes this particularly interesting in the case of John Burton is that his career has been less than singular; first a civil servant, then a diplomat, then an academic, he moved from Australia, then to the United Kingdom and thence to the United States, with various stops along the way. Though he has written a great deal—books, articles and conference papers—and was a key participant in the organization of the peace research movement in the 1960s, especially the International Peace Research Association and the Conflict Research Society in the United Kingdom (and is described on the back cover of CRP as ‘the founder of the field of conflict resolution’), he was never a professor during his extended residence i n the United Kingdom at, first, University College, London, and then at the University of Kent, achieving that status only later, at George Mason University.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document