This article examines the role of generosity in public administration from a peculiar literary perspective, that of Wallace Shawn’s play, The Designated Mourner. In the recent past, deontologists in the discipline, such as Emette Redford, articulated rich theories of democratic responsiveness, but today these theories no longer command a scholarly consensus. This collapse, or “death,” of deontology has led to a scramble for a new philosophical foundation to animate the study and practice of administration, with various candidates self-proclaiming themselves to be deontology’s designated mourner. This article examines three candidates: neo-Lockean natural law, neo-Habermassean communicative competence, and neo-Nietzschean receptive generosity. Only the third contains a strong enough commitment to democratic generosity to resist the temptations of self-effacement represented by Shawn’s designated mourner.
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