Ethics 1 The Peculiar Ethics of Public Leadership

Peculiar Ethics of Public Leadership: Pragmatism as a Framework for Action in Public Service

The objective of this study is to examine pragmatism as a framework for action in public services. Towards this end, this work will conduct an extensive review of literature in this area of study.

According to the work of Keith F. Snider entitled "Rethinking Public Administration's Roots in Pragmatism: The Case of Charles A. Beard" reports that pragmatism because very prominent "around the turn of the 20th century…through the ideas of well-known writers such as William James and John Dewey." (2008) Comaeger (1950) stated that pragmatism is "almost the official philosophy of America." (Stever, 2008) The work of Shields (nd) explains that classical pragmatism "is attractive because it has both depth and complexity." Shields states that these characteristics "have made it difficult to summarize and easy to misinterpret." (nd) Classical pragmatism has been held by scholars in psychiatry to be a method that can be used in the reconciliation of conflict in the field of psychiatry. Classical pragmatism can be best understood as explained by David H. Brendel (2006) who uses "four Ps" which is a framework for classical pragmatism. The four Ps are stated by Brendel as follows: (1) practical; (2) pluralistic; (3) participatory; and (4) provisional. (Shields, nd) Shields reports that the practical, experiential orientation of classical pragmatism is such that "incorporates the doing and making of practitioners, unlike other philosophical approaches." (Shields, nd) Those who founded classical pragmatism are reported to have been "men and women of action who united practice and theory." (Shields, nd) Pragmatism's experimentalism is stated by Shields to be "part of a larger theory and process of inquiry." (nd) It is the belief of classical pragmatists that "purposeful human inquiry is both provisional and grounded in a problematic situation. The applicability of the 'problematic situation' to public administration should be immediately apparent." (Shields, nd) Shields states that this is because "practitioners face problematic situations daily -- balancing budgets, presiding at tense meetings, hiring new employees." (nd) Problematic situations may include much larger problems such as "hurricanes, planetary warming, terrorism, poverty." (Shields, nd) Inquiry is contrasted by pragmatists "with habits. Habits are solutions-in-practice to past problematic situations. Habits may no longer work, or a new problem may arise." (Shields, nd) The acknowledgement that things are not working effectively is reported to take into account "the qualitative nature of human experience." (Shields, nd) Shields states that the problematic situation and doubt "are recognized and resolved through the process of inquiry, which involves critical reasoning, empirical investigation, and actions that are assessed in light of practical consequences" which is inclusive of experimental and scientific logic. Shields states that the process of purposeful inquiry is such that "links the problematic situation to an end-in-view -- a flexible, practical goal with meaning in the real world that cannot be separated from a problematic situation or human experience." (nd) In addition, "the pragmatic logic of inquiry is relative to consequences rather than antecedents, in contrast to formal logic, which begins with a premise." (Shields, nd) The experimentalism of pragmatism is such that "uses a forward looking view of science. The goal is not to find eternal principles, but rather to use an ongoing experimental and experiential process to develop plans for action that are evaluated in light of practical consequences." (Shields, nd) Hildebrand (2008) reports that no problem "is ever encountered, evaluated, or resolved in a vacuum." Governmental and administrative institutions are such that are "charged with the creation, implementation and administration of laws and codes that express communities' values" therefore these agencies are in no position and cannot "take as their operational mandate a value-neutral efficiency that eschews cognizance of the value-laden nature of their actions." (Hildebrand, 2008) According to Hildebrand "If the background of democratic life is rooted in community, its complementary foreground is inquiry, the epistemic actions with which communities solve problems and improve conditions." (2008) Classical pragmatism is such that holds that "the search for knowledge is motivated by concrete and situated needs. Classical pragmatism holds that public administration "exists to solve public problems. Without the trust of the public, public administration cannot exist." (Gray, 1996) Classical thinkers believe that legislators "if freely elected and guarded against corruption by special interests…could be counted on to reflect the consensus values of an essentially unified popular sovereign." (Gray, 1996) Progressives however, held that lawyers, prior to designing legal doctrines and institutions that would effectively meet the needs of the public must first "learn the facts about society" and then effectively become "social engineers, systematically investigating social problems, familiarizing themselves with the available methods of reform and testing whether these had the intended effects." (Gray, 1996) The work of Stever (2008) reports that Evans "makes it clear that pragmatism, as it was forged by John Dewey is a body of philosophy that would energize the field of public relations." (Stever, 2008) While Evans (2000) holds that, the fusing of pragmatism and public administration "is both urgent and feasible" simultaneously Evans argues, "citizen participation modeled on Dewey's conceptualization of collective inquiry and democratic decision making publics would be useful in dealing with the issues…" (Stever, 2008) Traditionalists cannot accept the "behavioral and logical positivist cast" as pragmatism was set out in the work of Dewey. (Stever, 2008) Pragmatism is stated in the work of Garrison (2000) to be other than "a set of predetermined criteria that the ideologically correct must follow. It is a broad and hospitable field of study: it accommodates a great deal of diversity." (Garrison, 2000) The pragmatic 'ethos' is termed in the work of Bernstein (1992) and can be understood "as emerging out of the theory of meaning." (Garrison, 2000) Pierce (1878/1992) states of pragmatism as follows: "Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object." According to Garrison (2000) "There is no difference of the meaning so fine that we cannot detect it in terms of a difference of possible consequences in mental or physical action. If the consequences of two conceptions are identical, their meaning is identical. Conversely, the difference in the consequences of two conceptions maps the difference between them. Pragmatism is a future-oriented practical philosophy that denies the theory vs. practice dualism." (Garrison, 2000) Snider (1998) concludes his work on pragmatism by stating that due to the "turbulence of the turn-of-millennium era -- exemplified by our growing cultural diversity, the uncertain effects of the information explosion, the polarization of debate surrounding social issues such as abortion and gun control -- may be leading to the 'propitious moment' that will allow consideration of alternative perspectives to replace a discredited orthodoxy."