Parallel Realities Within Public Administration: Conspiracy Theories, Alternate Pragmatisms and Artificial Intelligence

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

By Andrew Vaz
May 30, 2025

This article being presented here is a bold new route that I will be taking from the columns I usually post. I have never written on this before and I am very excited to share my thoughts on this subject. With the rise of artificial intelligence, I wanted to discuss the concept of alternative dimensions or parallel realities within public administration. Yes, these realities or dimensions do exist.

Parallel dimensions, alternate universes, are usually thought to be hypothetical realities. These universes are thought to be separate and may not intersect, meaning we would never be able to interact with or experience them directly (but indirectly). The concept explores the possibility of countless versions of our universe, each with variations in history, physics and even the laws of nature. I have been thinking about this for some time now – I believe there may come a way for our universe to interact with these hypothetical universes within the context of public administration.

Ok, here we go – our reality is divided into Inside and Outside. Inside is the material world, finite and governed by specific laws of physics. Outside is the realm of the immaterial, the spirit and the emotion, governed by something one can only describe as “dream logic.” Technically, the Outside is also finite, but it is so in a more nuanced way. It ends only where the Inside cares for it to end. Sounds good, right? Still with me?

The concept of “alternate universes” in the context of public administration is not a literal reference to parallel realities but rather a metaphor for different perspectives and approaches to governance—we are not talking about the Marvel Cinematic Universe here. It highlights the complexity of public administration, where there are multiple interpretations of challenges and solutions and different stakeholders hold differing views. This can be applied to political, managerial and legal approaches to public administration, as well as the different theories and practices within the field. The expansion of AI in the public sector entails the exploration of renovated foundations of analysis, not only to understand the novelty of these technologies but also to connect these processes of adoption and implementation with other debates in public policy and administration.

There are three levels of artificial intelligence within public administration: micro, macro and meso. Think of these different levels as dimensions – they use different analytical frameworks and disciplinary boundaries. I put the dimensions in this order: micro, macro and meso. Micro-level refers to the individual dimension, macro-level pertains to the institutional dimension and the meso-level dimension is about the government/public policy dimension. Looking at the individual (micro) level, we have learnt about the new capacities that public servants need to develop to align with the requirements of a new civil service 4.0, working with robots that perform human activities and interacting with citizens mediated by algorithms and AI technologies. At a macro-level, we have learnt that new theories in Public Administration and Management are emerging and how different countries are strategically promoting AI in different ways. At the meso-level, we have advanced our understanding about the implementation of AI systems in different public policies and government organizations in different countries and at governmental levels.

We should accept that government institutions are vital components of democratic governance by playing fundamental parts in the democratic governance of modern societies and the pursuit of public value. Even conspiracy theorists accept this to be true. Organization theory thus posits that public bureaucracies may possess capacities to shape the politics of governments quite independently of societal influence. Since bureaucratic life is partly developed and sustained independently of the societies to which they belong, the organizational design of bureaucracy provides elements of robustness to democratic politics.

Conspiracy theories are on the rise around the globe and can be found at the center of both academic and public debates. Conspiracy theories play an increasingly important and often highly problematic role in political debates in liberal democracies. Alongside this renaissance of conspiracy theories, schools and teachers have been facing manifold challenges. While educators don’t wish to shy away from engaging in debates about politically controversial topics, they also don’t want to give up on basic discursive norms that ensure sufficiently reasonable and civil discussion in the classroom.

The administrative state, originally coined by Dwight Waldo, emphasizes the distinct role of public administration in democratic governance. Yet, public administration research has insufficiently theorized how administrative structures at one level of government may be consequential for public governance at another level. Waldo’s 1948 book challenged the idea that public administration is value-neutral, performed in a dispassionate, almost mechanical manner. He argued that public servants should become active, informed, politically savvy agents of change, working to protect due process and public access to government.

In essence, the concept of “alternate universes” in public administration is a reminder of the complexity and diversity within the field. By acknowledging these different perspectives and approaches, we can better understand the challenges and opportunities within public administration and work towards more effective and equitable solutions.

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Author: Andrew R. Vaz, Ph.D. is a graduate of the Ph.D. in Public Policy and Ad-ministration program at Walden University, specializing in Public Man-agement and Leadership. He was already awarded a Master of Philoso-phy (MPhil) degree in the program. He is also a graduate of the Master of Science in Criminal Justice (MSCJ) and Master of Public Administration (MPA) double master’s program at Florida International University. He can be reached at [email protected]. 

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