Postmodern Public Policy (SUNY series in Public Policy)

Postmodern Public Policy introduces new ways of investigating the urgent difficulties confronting the public sector. The second half of the twentieth century saw approaches to public administration, public policy, and public management dominated by technical-instrumental thought that aspired to neutrality, objectivity, and managerialism. This form of social science has contributed to a public sector where policy debates have been reduced to "bumper-sticker" slogans, a citizenry largely alienated and distant from government, and analysis that ignores history and context and eschews the lived experiences of actual people. Hugh T. Miller brings together the latest thinking from epistemology, evolutionary theory, and discourse theory in an accessible and useful manner to emphasize how a postmodern approach offers the possibility of well-considered, pragmatic solutions grounded in political pluralism and social interaction between public service professionals and community members. The principle of the universal applicability of rules and laws that has held sway in Western civilization since the French Revolution, according to Miller (public administration, Florida Atlantic U.) does nothing more than rule a situation and insist on a conformance that distances us from the legal-rational democracy to which it gives rise. Applying the insights of postmodern philosophy to public policy, he contends, can bring back context and history to a bottom-up policy discourse that privileges experience, local knowledge, and local constituencies. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR Hugh T. Miller. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 105-112) And Index.