Moving Forward by Looking Back

Abstract

A retired professor reflects on his lower socioeconomic origins in considering how he would teach public administration differently were he to return to the classroom full-time. He indicates he would give greater attention to the role the embryonic practice of public administration played in efforts to mitigate the injurious effects of capitalism’s emergence. He also challenges today’s public administrators to assume an even more difficult role by acting to offset contemporary capitalism’s harmful effects on government and the broader public interest. He says they can do this by using the latitude granted them by the Constitution’s overlapping powers; and he suggests that whenever possible, public administrators should use their discretion to further socioeconomic equity among the people they serve.