Commentary: The Paralysis of Analysis

• Author: Bertha Lewis
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12237
• Date: 01 July 2014
• Published date: 01 July 2014

The Paralysis of Analysis 517

Bertha Lewis

The Black Institute

J

ohn W. Budd’s article “Implicit Public

Values and the Creation of Publicly Valuable

Outcomes:  e Importance of Work and the

Contested Role of Labor Unions” lays a founda-

tion for real action plans and demands. But as an

organizer for more than 25 years, the world as I see

it on this topic is far simpler than the picture the

article of‌f ers, and it urgently needs those plans and

demands.

Professor Roger Green of Medgar Evers College in

Brooklyn, New York, would occasionally use the

phrase “paralysis of analysis” to describe a situation in

which people analyze something to death.

 e article considers the range of public values on

work and the options for creating work-related

publicly valued outcomes and notes that there is no

consensus on the best way to def‌i ne or fulf‌i ll public

values. If it leads to action, instead of more analysis, it

will have served a very useful purpose.

Budd’s article properly criticizes as narrow the perspec-

tive of those who see work merely as a private activity

that generates commodities, services, and income. In

my world, work is like breathing, not just how you

earn a living. Work is everything you do every single

day. Play and recreation and rest are all the same as

work.  ere has to be a new def‌i nition of the word

“work.” We have to take it out of the workplace and

put it squarely at the center of human existence.

 e rich think that their work is special and that

they work harder than what we typically think of as

 e Paralysis of Analysis Commentary

Bertha Lewis is founder and president

of The Black Institute, an action “think

tank” nonprof‌i t organization addressing

systematic issues faced by people of color.

She is former chief executive off‌i cer and

chief organizer of ACORN, one of the largest

community organizations during its exist-

ence responsible for organizing low-income

Americans.

E-mail: cminier@theblackinstitute.org

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 74, Iss. 4, pp. 517–518. © 2014 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12237.