In Search of Common Purpose in the 21st Century

• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X16678278
• Published date: 01 December 2016
• Author: Galia Cohen
• Date: 01 December 2016
• Subject Matter: Book Review

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2016, Vol. 36(4) 412 –415

© The Author(s) 2016

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Book Review

In Search of Common

Purpose in the 21st

Century

Robert F. Durant . (2014). Why public ser vice matters: Public mana gers, public policy, and

democracy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmill an, 290pp. $24.89 paperbac k

Reviewed by: Gali a Cohen, The University of Texas at Da llas, Richardson, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734371X16678278

An article analyzing the 2016 U.S. presidential elections in the September issue of The

Atlantic called into question America’s abandonment of “the basic principles of con-

stitutional governance” and the major role bureaucracy plays in shaping public policy

today (Beinart, 2016, pp. 16-17). Such claims made by partisans on both sides about

America becoming less democratic underscore the timeliness of Why Public Service

Matters: Public Managers, Public Policy, and Democracy. The book analyzes our

nation’s ability to deal with contemporary policy challenges in public administration

while staying committed to democratic constitutionalism.

The main premise of the book is that public policy today presents public managers

with unique challenges, choices, and opportunities. This premise is structured around

a theoretical framework the author labels the “6R” framework, a model of public ser-

vice professionalism, which reflects “the six pressures on public agencies to adapt to

today’s public policy challenges” (p. xii). The “6Rs” are (a) reconceptualizing pur-

pose, (b) reconnecting with citizens, (c) redefining administrative rationality, (d) reen-

gaging resources, (e) recapitalizing personnel assets, and (f) revitalizing a sense of

common purpose (pp. xii-xiii). Durant utilizes the model to analyze six major tasks

public agencies are facing today.

The book is divided into 10 chapters. Chapter 1 offers an historical overview of the

development of the definition of public service since the nation’s founding. The chap-

ter makes the case that movements such as New Public Management fostered an

administrative apparatus that contributed to the “hollowing out” of our state (Milward

& Provan, 2000).

Chapter 2 draws primarily from Gaus’s (1947) “ecology” of public administration.

Using Gaus’s framework, the author describes three sets of secular trends that have

changed our society’s ecology: changes in people, changes in place, and changes in the

attitudes and beliefs of the citizens. In each set, Durant tackles several challenges that

shaped the contemporary context of public administration today (i.e., the global popu-

lation explosion, social media, and information technology).

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