GUEST COLUMN.

For decades, we have been told that government is the problem. We read the news and see story after story about government failures. We read the pages of academic journals on public administration and see study after study of how government does not work. All along, politicians have made their careers by bashing bureaucrats and describing government as corrupt, inefficient, and ineffective.

Most discussions on governmental failure have had an effect on the public, classrooms, and media. According to Pew, the public’s trust in government is at an all-time low. And even though the federal government is the least trusted of all, there’s been a decline in trust at both state and local levels. The erosion of trust in all levels of government has a compounding adverse effect, making it more difficult for public servants to do the needed work of the public sector, decreasing trust even more.

We have forgotten that government often succeeds, and failure in the public sector is the exception, not the norm. The government throughout the democratic world ensures millions have access to affordable healthcare, are protected from criminal enterprises, walk down streets that are not cluttered with trash and anticipate a speedy response when calling 911 about a fire. The public sector does these things because they are good for our communities and not profitable for the private sector. But a focus on failures, and not these successes, make it difficult for government to maintain these achievements, which causes even more problems and decreases public trust.

We don’t fight back against the anti-government rhetoric in public life, popular media, and scientific studies. Not making the case for government ensures that those arguing against the public sector win, and trust in government continues to decline.

Positive Public Administration is a scholarly approach that gives us the tools needed to focus on what works in government, not why it fails. In Pathways to Positive Public Administration, the editors and authors present a much-needed guide for this new theoretical approach to improve research and the practice of public administration.

These goals could be accomplished through the following “pathways.”

1.     We need to research what works in government. Research agendas need to focus more on government successes and develop translational findings that can be used throughout the public sector.

2.     Do not think of government as working or not working. Government is not ineffective or effective. As Matthew Flinders notes, we need to move beyond a “binary understanding of success and failure. Efficacy is a continuum in public services. Through proper design and evaluation with a focus on continuous improvement, we can move public services along that continuum toward greater success and away from failures.

3.     Removing administrative burdens, even small ones. Pamela Herd and Donald Moynihan point to the case of the U.S. student loan forgiveness website built by the Biden Administration as an example of the government getting it right and removing burdens. It’s an example of focusing on how the government works, as opposed to having most of the research done on when government fails, like with the Obamacare website.

4.     Spread positivity in our schools of public affairs. Faculty and leaders of academic programs in the field can do more work toward spreading a love of public service among future public administrators. We need to point toward the virtues of careers in public service, not constantly complaining about the pathologies of public bureaucracy. We need to celebrate being a public bureaucrat not bash it.

5.     Simply be positive. Scholars and practitioners of public administration need to refocus how we talk about working in government back to it being a calling, an ethos, an opportunity to serve our communities, and so on. And we can practice more positivity in our public and private lives. Even amid challenges, and there are many, we have responsibilities to strive for meaningful lives with our families, friends, and the communities that we serve.

The Progressive Movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s in the U.S. provides some guidance for an agenda of Positive Public Administration. The Progressive Movement primarily focused on developing ideas about what works in government, like professional city management, and followers were optimistic about the government's role in addressing societal ills. But even as the Progressive Theodore Roosevelt argued for optimism, he noted that it needs to be measured and realistic when managing our natural resources. This is also the case in government.

The focus on positivity in public administration does not mean that we ignore wrongs in government. For instance, we need to advocate for diversity and inclusion and push the U.S. toward being a nation that meets the ideals in the Declaration of Independence. We need to fight against authoritarian takeovers of democratic institutions and other forms of administrative evil. We need to promote public service workers and argue for fair compensation and treatment in the public workplace. However, we do not have to focus on the failures of government to address these problems. All this and more can be addressed by focusing on what works and being happy advocates of good government again.

The contents of this Guest Column are those of the author, and not necessarily Barrett and Greene, Inc. 

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