The Future Rise of Public Administration

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization. 

By Dwight Vick
November 7, 2025

With the recent plethora of political assassinations, school shootings and similar acts of violence occurring during devolutionary bureaucratic changes (an introductory clause I thought I would never write), many questions came to mind. I wondered how our law enforcement brethren could regain trust in an investigation of a conservative leader. Is it possible to regain trust in education? The same questions apply to public works employees paving roads, replacing broken water mains or environmental departments who measure water and air quality. If many persons forego vaccinations, how can we protect ourselves from disease even through herd immunity? How do we regain public trust? But it is deeper than that for me. As I mulled over these questions, I condensed them into two: “How did we get here?” and “How do we get out of it?”

Immediately after I asked myself these questions, and to make sense of it all, I remembered ASPA’s Book Talk with Drs. Steven Hanson and Jeffery Kopstein about their latest book The Assault on the State. This is a must-read book and must-watch presentation. Hanson and Kopstein outline how we as a society reached this point and imply how we, as public administrators, play a vital role in getting out of this attack on the state. In short, the authors gave me hope both as a citizen and a public administration professor.

Like me, the authors were puzzled about the origins of governmental distrust. Hanson and Kopstein see our country’s decline into distrust as the creation of a long-held Deep State conspiracy by the left and right. The left is suspicious of the industrial-military-Congressional complex. The right sees the structure of the administrative state as a threat to opportunity. These two opposing but shared conspiracies result in a demise toward forgotten premodern states while requiring us, both as citizens and public administrators, to defend the modern state.

One may ask, “What is a premodern state?” Hanson and Kopstein define it as a government ruled less by experts and more by “quacks, soothsayers, cronies and sycophants” who create a patrimonial society that utilizes violence to control populations. Their work leads to bad policies. When this governing approach is applied to 21st-century situations, they are unable to handle the challenges brought on by issues like climate change, food safety and supply, etc. The authors provide several examples to support their claims that include, but are not limited to, the fall of the Soviet Union and Putin’s rise to power when its democratic, market-based economy ignored basic human rights. But these persons win elections, which leads to emotion-based respect, friendship and devotion. The old saying, “It’s not what you know but who you know,” matters.

What has given rise to this patrimonial wave, under the guise of authoritarian populism, in American society and negatively impacts every public service expert? The authors cite the following reasons: rising inequality, changing demography, increased anti-liberalism and the agencies believed to support liberal ideas, and the failure of neoliberalism to deliver on its promises. In short, the wave is caused by a fear and perceived reality of marginalization. Citizens and defenders of democracy, that we public administrators are, can recognize this patrimonialism when three situations occur: 1) the promotion of family members, cronies and sycophants to public positions who not only understand how government works but how to dismantle it; 2) attacks on state bureaucracies, public servants, members of the judiciary and unelected officials while the opposite of these experts are appointed to public office; and 3) experts and institutions of higher education are forced to subordinate their faculty and researchers who challenge a leader’s patriarchal and authoritarian views. But this always ends.

One may ask, “When?” When citizens realize they are taught by quacks. Water and air are dirty. Food becomes too risky to eat. A resurgence of childhood diseases begins. People are killed and no one trusts the investigation. Then, people will turn to the modern state. We will seek out public administrators who are loyal to their community and country. Elections will be seen not only as necessary but also as essential for all modern governments – local, state and federal. Despite its flaws, civil service will return as we know it.

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Author: A graduate of Arizona State University, Dr. Dwight Vick has been as ASPA member for 30 years.  He is an instructor with Texas A&M International University and Thomas Edison State University as well as works with Texas area high schools teaching government, economics, political science, and English.

 

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