The Second Founding: An Incomplete and Taken-for-Granted Facet of U.S. Public Administration History

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

By Meghan Geist and Ashley E. Nickels
August 30, 2024

Public administration has overlooked a critical chapter in America’s political narrative for a long time: the second founding. This transformative era—post-Civil War and during Reconstruction—profoundly influenced the nation’s legal and political landscape, shaping contemporary policies. Luminaries like Frederick Douglas and Thaddeus Stevens, as well as organizations such as the Brotherhood of Liberty, Freedom Lawmakers and Freedmen’s Bureau, laid the groundwork for the civil rights era and space for democratic ideals to expand. Despite its importance, our recent analysis reveals a gap in public administration scholarship regarding this era.

The second founding is a touchstone in our nation’s history, shaping modern public administration and providing a legal framework for social equity in governance. Marking a departure from the previous republic and the U.S. Constitution, this timeframe encompasses the Reconstruction amendments: the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, the 14th guaranteed equality and citizenship for anyone born in the United States and the 15th gave Black male citizens the right to vote. These amendments fundamentally altered federal powers, expanded citizenship and ushered in a new era of governance. However, as Du Bois (1935) argues, Reconstruction’s promise of equality faced significant obstacles, hindering full participation for Black Americans.

Although initially marginalized by the U.S. Supreme Court and state legislatures, these amendments laid the groundwork for subsequent civil rights legislation, including affirmative action policies and the Voting Rights Act (Foner, 2019). Curious about how, and to what extent, these ideas are discussed in public administration’s histories, we collected articles and other publications examining this topic.

Our work builds on the growing body of social equity scholarship, calling on scholars to re-evaluate existing systems and taken-for-granted histories. Bearfield et al. (2023) challenge us to consider strategies to dismantle these structures. Of particular salience, Blessett et al. (2016) argue for more inclusive critical perspectives in public administration curriculum to explore the role of historical processes that continue to contribute to today’s injustices; and Heckler (2023), which advocates for a critical reevaluation of who we claim as our profession’s founders, highlights the overlooked influence of people like Jane Addams.

Our investigation reveals a glaring gap: out of 47 articles and chapters analyzed, only one mentions the term “second founding”: a book review. Trochmann’s (2022) review of The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019) by Eric Foner, emphasizes the importance of integrating second founding narratives into public administration discourse.

Our analysis highlights the 14^th Amendment’s prominence, which was coded 66 times in 28 documents. However, its significance is often superficially acknowledged, typically coupled with discussion of the Civil Rights Act (1866) or 13th and 15th Amendments. The 15th Amendment was coded eight times in three documents, whereas the 13th was coded four times in one article. These amendments sometimes were coupled with the theme of citizenship, often defined by exclusions (i.e., women, enslaved people, immigrants, etc.) or as an “exclusive concept” (Lucio, 2009). Alexander & Stivers (2020) define citizenship as “a guarantee of legal and political protection from raw, coercive power.” Others ponder traits of a “good” or “active” citizen. Among 47 articles, seven discuss racialized citizenship, focusing on political action, slavery, rights expansion and historical contextualization within the Constitution and Revolution era.

The Freedmen’s Bureau received scant attention, and more often was used as a one-time example for “color conscious relief programs” post-Civil War or as post-Civil War social policies. Only two of the documents analyzed offered more than a simple mention. Alexander and Stivers (2020) discuss in detail the Freedmen’s Bureau through the context of Reconstruction. Specifically, they discuss how Black Americans sought to promote their own interests through government using the Bureau. Couto (1991) uses the Freedmen’s Bureau as a case study showcasing “heroic bureaucracies.” Citing the Bureau 59 times, Couto discusses their role in schools, local governments and philanthropic organizations to create schooling programs, negotiate land and contracts and assisting formerly enslaved people post-Civil War. This was the deepest dive into the Freedmen’s Bureau and its role in shaping U.S. history and equity.

While the “second founding” was mentioned only in one article, we found that Woodrow Wilson was referred to, or one of his works was cited in-text, 128 times in 16 documents. Often referred to as the field’s founder, we were not surprised his name appeared often in the articles; yet, scant attention is paid to the complexities of his legacy, particularly his racist viewpoints. As a comparison, important figures like Oliver Otis Howard, commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau; or Frederick Douglass, an activist, abolitionist and someone considered a founding father of the second founding, are discussed only in tandem with the Freedmen’s Bureau, if at all.

The second founding is a critical and neglected aspect of public administration discourse. While we highlight just a snapshot of our on-going research, the data show that while elements of the second founding (e.g. people or legislation) are referenced, the whole picture is not taken into account fully, nor critically analyzed. Failure to engage with this pivotal era not only overlooks key legislative milestones and judicial precedents but also neglects the voices and experiences of those who reshaped public administration as we know it.

We join the long and growing cadre of scholars challenging dominant narratives and calling for the field to adopt a race- and gender-conscious approach in how we make sense of public administration history and contemporary praxis. We believe the second founding offers an overlooked and important starting point.

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Author: Meghan Geist ([email protected]) is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at Kent State University. Her research interests include immigration and refugee policies in Western nations; bio- and necro- politics; borders, mobility, and securitization; and immigrant detention. 

Author: Ashley Nickels, Ph.D., ([email protected]) is associate professor in the School of Peace and Conflict Studies at Kent State University and co-Editor-in-Chief of Administrative Theory & Praxis.

 

 

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