What a Year!

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

By Lisa Saye
December 16, 2024

Historical patterns are being rewritten. Existing practices are being discarded. What does it mean for public administration? The answer and answers will redefine the political agency of bureaucracy, free speech, freedom of expression and representation. Whereas democratic succession has been generational through the vote, public administration requires more than political compromise. It demands compassion through protest and debate for clarity and equality to become manifest. Our pain should not be purposely self-inflicted because we refuse to cooperate with each other. That is senseless in a year that clearly indicates a fundamental change in how government will look in the very, very near future.

Today is not a mixture of sweet and sad. It is a combination of stunned and silent. For democracy, America has been the best to ever do it. Through its amending process, our founding document encompasses the notion that we are never the best we can be and that we can always be better. Our timeline of pain-points demonstrate our willingness to admit when we are wrong and our eagerness to improve. We ashamedly and unashamedly work to form a more perfect union. This has been our space and our presence in this space has inspired generations.

There is a danger in calling anything a dream instead of making it a reality. There should be a rejection of ideal situations for ones that reflect the hard choices that come in making serious decisions. In its founding, Public Administration calls for the realistic structures that are needed to operate a government void of influence and revenge. As administrators we follow rules, processes and procedures that have come through practice, debate, expenditure and justice. Ignoring these tenets is to do so at the peril of all that we have accomplished as a discipline and thereby as a nation.

Disruption is not a bad term. It is not something to fear. The typewriter has been a disruptor and so have fire, wheels, cars, planes, electricity and satellites. Hate is not disruption. Hate is hate. Policy that highlights the petty personal issues of leaders and administrators are not disruptions, they are hate. This is not said to be preachy, rather it is written to be accurate. Unconventional management, such as what we saw during Covid, was possible because administrators kept intact their agency mandates and objectives in the space that they were given. Before Covid, E-government had already been in practice in many areas. Covid increased that use and a new set of best practices emerged. Without a sincere foundation, government and public administration would have disappeared during this time.

Talent is not something we should be satisfied with throwing away. Democracy’s talent is the fact that the best ones understand how to manage talent. Talent in the form of policy creation and implementation. Talent in the form of the free selection of representatives. Talent in the form of fair and just circumstances and environments for citizen progress and livelihood. And more importantly, the talent to know what is talent and what isn’t. This year has seen a chorus of discussion around who knows this or who knows that. America is divided over many things, but be sure we know talent when we see it even if we refuse to acknowledge it.

Public administration makes us see ourselves in the people we serve. It is designed to do so through a clever and poignant mix of policy. Policy written to correct wrongs where they exist or to create a lane for advancement and inclusion. Yes, inclusion. Taken in its entirety, the American experience of democracy could not be what it is without inclusion and this is precisely why countries around the world point to the U.S. as an example of such.

Is democracy leaving America before its time? Yes, if we let it. Yes, if we forget what we remember. Yes, if division is more important than addition. And yes, if courage is replaced with fear. Our underlying philosophy must rise to the occasion if we were ever serious about government. It must crest the waves of confusion and indifference. Public administration is still the vessel for policy. Without democracy, what need do we have of the visible part of government—of its administrative arm? To call democracy an experiment has been a little dismissive. It is and always has been a manifestation of our better selves, our best art and our most humane practice. No doubt, this has been a year of whoopers and stunners, but we got this. We got this.

The ^@Days In Our Lives photo was taken and titled by Lisa Saye.

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Author: Dr. Lisa Saye served as Fulbright Specialist in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and as International Consultant for the United Nations Development Program in The Maldives. She also served as Chair of the Division of Social Sciences and Humanities and as Associate Professor of Public Administration at American University Afghanistan. Dr. Saye can be reached by email at [email protected].

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