Expanding the Reach of Representativeness, Discretion, and Collaboration: The Unrealized Potential of Public Administration Research in Atrocity Prevention

• Published date: 01 January 2021
• Author: Susan Appe,Nadia Rubaii,Kerry Whigham
• Date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13296

Research Article

Expanding the Reach of Representativeness, Discretion, and Collaboration 81

Abstract: Mass atrocities constitute a “wicked” problem that warrants greater attention from public administration

scholars. The role bureaucrats have in committing or contributing to mass atrocities is well documented, yet bureaucrats

also have the potential to play crucial roles in stopping current, preventing future, and responding to past atrocities.

Despite the central role of public administrators in mass atrocities and prevention, public administration scholarship

is largely silent on such topics, effectively ceding this problem to other disciplines and professions. Using three pressing

challenges facing atrocity prevention practitioners and scholars as examples, this article illustrates how public

administration theories and public administrators in practice can contribute to prevention by focusing their attention

on upstream (before conflict) stages. The overarching goal is to frame atrocity prevention in terms that will resonate

withpublic administration scholars while also providing a roadmap for the field’s engagement with these issues.

Evidence for Practice

• The atrocity prevention potential of bureaucrats is greatest at the upstream (before conflict) stage, rather

than in the more typical midstream (response and mitigation) or downstream (post-conflict rebuilding)

stages.

• Public service practitioners in the Global North could learn from their counterparts in the Global South

regarding how to engage in domestically focused and nationally coordinated atrocity prevention mechanisms.

• Mainstreaming an atrocity prevention lens will allow a wide range of public services to be recognized and

leveraged for their atrocity prevention potential.

• Bureaucratic norms of division of labor, hierarchy, political neutrality, and administrative efficiency may

contribute to mass atrocities and impede prevention efforts.

In the twenty-first century, few public

administration scholars openly espouse traditional

notions of a strict politics–administration

dichotomy nor do they define the responsibilities

of public administrators as narrowly limited to the

efficient and politically neutral implementation of

policy. Instead, for the most part, the field recognizes

the moral obligations of public administrators to

represent, be accountable to, and engage with the

publics they serve and the public interest. As early as

1948, Dwight Waldo challenged the notion of public

administration as a value-neutral or purely technical

enterprise, and advocated for active, informed, and

politically savvy public servants. Yet as the discussions

and outputs of Minnowbrook Conferences illustrate,

change is difficult. Many of the same themes,

criticisms, and recommendations characterize

Minnowbrook I (1968), II (1988), III (2008),

and Minnowbrook at 50 (2018). The most recent

conference acknowledged progress while once again

lamenting the tendency to avoid pressing and salient

topics, not to advance issues of equity and social

justice sufficiently, and to be too United States centric.

The technocratic roots of the profession continue to

exert a powerful influence, and in practice, public

administrators often avoid making value judgements

(Hodgkinson1982).

While domestic policy issues and internal

management functions demand continued attention

from public administration scholars, the field also

has a responsibility to examine and contribute

to addressing great social challenges and wicked

problems both at home and abroad (Jun and

Gross1996; Nabatchi, Goerdel, and Peffer2011).

This article draws attention to the fact that the voices

and perspectives of public administration scholars are

largely missing from the research in an area where they

have the potential to make important contributions,

namely the prevention of “large-scale, systematic

violence against civilian populations” (Straus2016,

31) that constitute mass atrocities.

Susan Appe†

University at Albany, SUNY

Expanding the Reach of Representativeness, Discretion, and

Collaboration: The Unrealized Potential of Public

Administration Research in Atrocity Prevention

Nadia Rubaii†

Kerry Whigham†

Binghamton University and the Institute for Genocide

and Mass Atrocity Prevention

†Authorship equally shared.

Kerry Whigham is Assistant Professor

of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention

at Binghamton University’s Institute for

Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention

(I-GMAP). He is also Director of Research

and Online Education at the Auschwitz

Institute for the Prevention of Genocide

and Mass Atrocities and a member of

the Executive Board of the International

Association of Genocide Scholars. More info

at www.kerrywhigham.com.

Email: kwhigham@binghamton.edu

Nadia Rubaii is Professor of Public

Administration and Co-Director of the

Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity

Prevention (I-GMAP) at Binghamton

University, State University of New York.

Her research has long focused on issues of

diversity, inclusion, and cultural competence

in both academic and practitioner

settings in the United States and globally.

Her current emphasis is on protecting

indigenous rights in Latin America as a

means of preventing further mass atrocities.

Email: nadia.rubaii@binghamton.edu

Susan Appe is Assistant Professor

of Public Administration and Policy at

Rockefeller College of Public Affairs

and Policy, University at Albany, SUNY.

In addition to her research on public

administration’s role in mass atrocity

prevention, she focuses on government–

nonprofit relations and philanthropy

in international development. She is

co-editor-in-chief of VOLUNTAS:

International Journal of Voluntary

and Nonprofit Organizations, a journal

publishing on topics related to civil society,

nonprofit organizations, volunteering, and

philanthropy.

Email: sappe@albany.edu

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 81, Iss. 1, pp. 81–90. © 2020 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13296.