Reflections on John Rohr’s “Regime Values,” Neorepublican Freedom, and Public Administration

• Published date: 01 March 2014
• DOI: 10.1177/0095399713515876
• Author: Michael W. Spicer
• Date: 01 March 2014
• Subject Matter: Articles

Administration & Society

2014, Vol 46(2) 153 –159

© The Author(s) 2013

DOI: 10.1177/0095399713515876

aas.sagepub.com

Article

Reflections on John

Rohr’s “Regime

Values,” Neorepublican

Freedom, and Public

Administration

Michael W. Spicer1

Abstract

In advancing his views on regime values, John Rohr pointed to the limitations

and dangers of approaches that seek to ground administrative ethics on

the pursuit of any single value or understanding of that value. This article

examines the neorepublican conception of freedom and shows how this

single-minded conception of freedom can deflect attention away from the

conflicts of values, including conflicts among our conceptions of freedom,

that characterize our moral and political experience.

Keywords

public administration, regime values, neorepublican freedom

Over three decades ago, John Rohr (1976) argued that, in thinking about pub-

lic administration ethics, public administrators should consult what he termed

our “regime values.” Important among these, for him, are our values of free-

dom, property, and equality. However, Rohr also acknowledged that the mean-

ing of these values was never precise and always contestable and that they

could only be understood by examining the way in which we have historically

1Cleveland State University

Corresponding Author:

Michael W. Spicer, Maxine Goodman Levin, Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State

University, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, USA.

Email: m.spicer@csuohio.edu

515876AASXXX10.1177/0095399713515876Administration & SocietySpicer

research-article2013