Neoliberalism for the Common Good? Public Value Governance and the Downsizing of Democracy

• Author: Joe Soss,Adam Dahl
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12191
• Published date: 01 July 2014
• Date: 01 July 2014

Adam Dahl is a doctoral candidate

in political science at the University of

Minnesota. He also holds a Dissertation

Fellowship from the American Council

of Learned Societies and the Mellon

Foundation. His research employs historical

approaches to study the intersection of

democratic theory and American politics.

More specif‌i cally, his dissertation examines

how settler colonialism and racial exclusion

shaped the development of democratic poli-

tics and culture in the nineteenth-century

United States.

E-mail: dahlx379@umn.edu

Joe Soss is Cowles Chair for the Study

of Public Service at the University of

Minnesota, where he holds faculty positions

in the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public

Affairs, Political Science, and Sociology.

His research explores the interplay of

democratic politics, societal inequali-

ties, and public policy. He is particularly

interested in the politics of social division

and marginalization. His most recent book

is Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal

Paternalism and the Persistent Power

of Race.

E-mail: jbsoss@umn.edu

496 Public Administration Review • July | August 2014

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 74, Iss. 4, pp. 496–504. © 2014 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12191.

Adam Dahl

Joe Soss

University of Minnesota

 is article raises a set of cautions regarding public value

governance along two dimensions. First, it questions

the common claim that public value governance poses

a direct challenge to the economistic logic of neoliberal-

ism. Second, although public value is often presented as

a democratizing agenda, leading works sidestep foun-

dational questions of power and conf‌l ict and advance

prescriptions that are at odds with important demo-

cratic values. Without attending to these problems, the

public value concept risks producing a new variant of

neoliberal rationality, extending and strengthening the

de- democratizing, market-oriented project that its propo-

nents seek to overturn.

The language of “public value” has emerged

in recent years as an inf‌l uential new idiom

for ef‌f orts to reform governance.  e con-

cept blends old commitments to the common good

with newer aspirations for performance-centered

public management. As a political project, it mounts

a challenge to the market models and interests that

have transformed governance over the past several

decades.  is “neoliberal turn” prevails today, pub-

lic value scholars argue, because public authorities

lack a coherent alternative to discourses that frame

governance in exclusively economic terms. Older

notions of the public good have been too vague to

provide practical direction and evaluative criteria for

governance (Bozeman 2002). Public value passes this

litmus test and, at the same time, allows for a robust

defense of the public sector

against its critics (Benington

and Moore 2011). By ground-

ing governance in the pursuit of

public value, proponents aim to

displace neoliberal rationalities

that privilege market solutions,

diminish democracy, and serve private interests at the

expense of the common good.

 e rise of public value models also ref‌l ects a longer

historical shift in public authority from “govern-

ment” to more collaborative, multisector modes of

“governance” (Pierre 2000). Along with its many practi-

cal consequences, this shift has had signif‌i cant implica-

tions for democratic theory. Dissatisf‌i ed with the limits

of representative government, scholars have pursued

democratizing reforms in a host of extra-electoral

realms such as public budgeting, service provision,

planning, and policy implementation (Fischer 2009,

67). In the process, they have taken up questions of

participation, citizenship, inclusion, and equality

that were previously of interest mainly to democratic

theorists (Fung 2006; Quick and Feldman 2011).

New modes of “governance-driven democratization”

have also encouraged democratic theorists to confront

new questions and practical considerations related to

their concepts. Because these governance models locate

democratic politics outside the formal institutions of

liberal democracy, they represent a relatively new fron-

tier in democratic theory (Bevir 2010; Warren 2009).

 us, for democratic theorists as much as for scholars

of governance, the time is ripe for dialogue regarding

the political implications of public value governance.

Against this backdrop, our article raises questions and

concerns along two dimensions. First, we question the

extent to which public value governance challenges

the economistic logic of neoliberalism. Although they

oppose laissez-faire ef‌f orts to roll back the state, public

value models derive much of their logic from market

templates.  e resulting parallels make public value

less of a challenge to neoliberalism than one would

surmise based on the stated

intentions of its proponents.

Because their logics are congru-

ent, public value governance is

highly vulnerable to assimilation

into the dominant rationality of

neoliberal governance. In this

manner, public value models may ultimately reinforce

and extend neoliberalism by embedding market logics

more deeply in progressive uses of state power.

Second, although public value is often promoted

as a democratizing agenda, leading works sidestep

Neoliberalism for the Common Good? Public Value

Governance and the Downsizing of Democracy

We question the extent to

which public value governance

challenges the economistic logic

of neoliberalism.