Towards the Meridian: Albert Camus, Democracy, and Public Administration. (4th July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Spicer, Michael W.
• Is Part Of: Public integrity. Volume 21:Number 4(2019)
• Page Start: 378
• Page End: 393
• Publication Date: 2019-07-04
• Subjects: democracy -- Camus -- politics -- constitutionalism -- ethics; Civil service ethics -- United States -- Periodicals; Public administration -- Moral and ethical aspects -- United States -- Periodicals; Political ethics -- United States -- Periodicals; Civil service ethics -- Periodicals; Public administration -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Periodicals; Political ethics -- Periodicals; Civil service ethics; Political ethics; Public administration -- Moral and ethical aspects; United States; PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION; CIVIL SERVICE; MORAL ASPECTS; POLITICAL ETHICS; Periodicals; 172
• DOI: 10.1080/10999922.2018.1522181
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1099-9922

Abstract

Abstract : This article draws on the writings of Albert Camus to argue that the use of abstractions, such as the "will of the people, " in thinking about democracy and public administration fosters a potentially dangerous antipathy towards political contestation within our field, an antipathy that was characteristic of the violent French Revolution and is shared by modern populist movements. Camus' idea of the absurd is used to argue that American public administration scholars and practitioners should embrace, rather than decry, our Constitutional practices of contestation, and seek a middle path between the pursuit of democracy as an ideal and a recognition of the essentially contested character of that ideal.