Teaching Democracy in Public Administration: Trends and Future Prospects

Abstract

Over the last century, the skills, ideas, and values upheld within the field of public administration (PA) have undergone several major shifts. We seem to be in the midst of another such transition, as PA schools react to new perspectives about the state of democracy and citizenship. Most of these arguments focus on the more participatory aspects of democracy, and emphasize the need for governments to work more directly and interactively with citizens. “Democratic governance” is one term used to describe this set of ideas. This article explores the relationship between PA and democratic governance through interviews with professors and other observers of the discipline. The picture that emerges is that of a field in flux, spurred both by theoretical claims and by the practical needs of administrators, being pushed from a narrow focus on management to a broader conception of governing.

Keywords

participation, citizen involvement, public engagement, citizenship, democracy, collaborative governance, democratic governance, public administration

How to Cite

Leighninger M., (2010) “Teaching Democracy in Public Administration: Trends and Future Prospects”, Journal of Public Deliberation 6(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16997/jdd.100

1040

Views

391

Downloads

Share

Authors

Matt Leighninger (Deliberative Democracy Consortium)

Download

Issue

Publication details

Dates

Licence

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

Identifiers

Peer Review

This article has been peer reviewed.

File Checksums (MD5)

  • PDF: 0154813c30b8efa5fea4aea72478f8d1