Holding the Country Together

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

By Thomas Barth 
October 11, 2024

A common theme among conversations with friends and family over the past summer was frustration and even despair over a presidential election giving us the choice of a convicted felon who attacks the legitimacy of our governmental institutions versus a rapidly aging President whose mental capacity was being questioned by his own party leaders. Since then, the aging President has resigned under pressure, and although there is now much more excitement among Democrats about the new candidate, legitimate questions remain about how such a crisis was allowed to occur in the first place. Throw in a Congress and Supreme Court rife with political extremism and it is not a picture that inspires optimism about our country. We are all familiar with the polls such as Pew’s study showing that only 20 percent of Americans say they trust the government in Washington “to do what is right just about always/most of the time.”

Amidst such pessimism, I remind those who will listen that as an MPA faculty member I have had the good fortune of teaching and working for 30+ years with scores of public servants in the local government and nonprofit sectors who have impressed and inspired me on a consistent basis. These are professionals who do not fiddle while Rome burns in Washington, D.C.; they work every day paving our streets, planning our communities, building affordable housing, keeping citizens safe, educating our children, knitting the social safety net through social services and public/mental health programs, protecting our environment, mitigating natural disasters and the list goes on.

These are bright, talented people who desire careers that make a real difference in the quality of life in our nation’s communities. These are not people who seek political power and the grand stage; they seek public service behind the scenes for modest pay. The following are but a sample I have had the privilege of working with:

• city and county managers
• police officers
• fire fighters
• city planners
• nonprofit executive directors, program analysts, and case managers
• immigration lawyers
• community development specialists
• school teachers
• parks and recreation specialists
• emergency management specialists
• budget analysts
• human resource managers
• social workers
• public health workers

What do these public servants all have in common? They have earned or are pursuing MPAs or related public affairs degrees, and this speaks to the fundamental importance of these programs to the functioning of our country. Importantly, MPA programs are generalist degrees, so they bring together all of these specialists and provide them with a common core of knowledge and skills essential for the leadership and management of our institutions, including government and organization theory, quantitative research methods, budgeting and finance, human resource management, ethics and leadership. Encouragingly, 7,000+ public affairs-related master’s degrees were awarded in 2017-18 according to NASPAA, many of which are MPA degrees.

Americans seem to agree with my positive experience, as Pew reports that 66 percent of Americans have a favorable view of local government.  But I would suggest that it is quite easy for the average citizen to forget (or simply not be aware) that of the 19 million civilian public employees in the United States, about 16.3 million work at the subnational levels (Rosenbloom, et al. 2022). 

However, those of us in the field of public administration have work to do. For the average citizen, the public servants I have taught like those listed above work “behind the curtain” and are taken for granted.  As an illustration, over the years I had the habit of asking large groups of undergraduate political science students the basic question, “Who runs the City of Charlotte?”  The vast majority of students would quickly answer the Mayor, rather than the more accurate answer, the City Manager. I also have enjoyed explaining to citizens what a Professor of Public Administration is, as I typically receive blank stares when I am asked about my profession.

So, take the opportunity to tell your pessimistic fellow citizens to buck up, and rest assured that while politicians in Washington doing their dance will come and go, there are far more well-trained, dedicated public servants at all levels in this county keeping the fabric together.

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Author: Dr. Tom Barth is a Professor Emeritus in the Gerald G. Fox MPA program at UNC Charlotte. [email protected].

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