John Rawls’ theory of justice has had a direct impact on public administration, especially work in new public administration. His theory has influenced the obligations of public administrators, the scope of citizen participation in public administration, and the equitable distribution of public services. It has also contributed to the development of administrative ethics. In addition, it suggests ways in which a mediating model of public reason might be developed for public administrators working on deeply divisive social and economic issues.
Besieged: School Boards and the Future of Education Politics. Edited by William G. Howell. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2005. 356p. $19.77.In college and university towns across the United States, academics are regular fixtures on local public school boards. In search of a way to meet our civic duty, we seem to be drawn naturally to school boards more than other local public institutions. This is a guess, of course, and it is one of the few things one cannot find data on in this collection of essays on the work that has been done by and to school boards in the last decade. If the intuition that academics tend to romanticize local school boards is only half right, these rigorous, fine-grained essays on one area of education politics will intrigue more than just political scientists.
Article 2: The Republic of Poland shall be a democratic state ruled by law and implementing the principles of social justice....Article 7: The organs of public authority shall function on the basis of, and within the limits of, the law. Constitution of the Republic of Poland, April 2, 1997 Chapter 1, Article 1: The Slovak Republic is a democratic and sovereign state ruled by the law. It is bound neither to an ideology, or to a religion. Constitution of Slovakia, September 1, 1991 Chapter 1, Article 1: The Czech Republic is a sovereign, unified and democratic law-observing state, based on the respect for the rights and freedoms of the individual and citizen. Constitution of the Czech Republic, December 16, 1992 Preamble: We, the members of the Seventh Grand National Assembly, guided by our desire to express the will of the people of Bulgaria...hereby promulgate our resolve to create a democratic, law-governed and social state, by establishing this CONSTITUTION. Constitution of Bulgaria, July 12, 1991
Professional authority in the United States today is undergoing an unprecedented transformation. This is more true for the classic professions of law and medicine than it is for other professions and even "semiprofessions" like social work and nursing. 1 While less prestigious professions still struggle to establish their authority on the grounds of expert knowledge and special training, the authority of the legal and medical professions is being undermined by the commodification of legal and medical services. How these new market relations affect the legitimacy of professional authority and, indirectly, the political legitimacy of the state is the subject of this essay. 2 Arguments about legitimation dominated political theory for almost a decade after the events of the late 1960s. 3 While less mechanical than earlier Marxist crisis theory, they never moved beyond an abstract systems theoretic approach. This is unfortunate because the legitimacy of the modern state should be at the center of political theory. 4 I hope to revive the legitimation crisis thesis by focusing on the current transformation of professional authority. When read in the context of this transformation, some of the central claims of Jfirgen Habermas and Claus Offe in particular become more plausible. 5 I begin with the importance of professional authority for Habermas's and Offe's theories generally. These preliminary remarks only serve to link professional authority and their analysis of state power through the concept of needs. By themselves, they do not strengthen Habermas's and Offe's legitimation crisis theses, which I will hereafter refer to as a single thesis with complementary parts. To expand and strengthen this thesis, I will then work my way through the current transformation of professional authority and finally return to Habermas and Offe in more detail Theory and Society 16:237-262 (1987) C~ Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht -Printed in the Netherlands
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.