The continued interest in (neo-)pragmatism for public administration is a validation of the very kind of democratic discourse that the philosophy holds dear. Yet the back-and-forth also reinforces a critique coming from one of its major figures, Richard Rorty: We seem to be jockeying for position in an analytic language game that will never have a winner. The matter may not be “settled” per se, but the groundwork of (neo-)pragmatism’s use in public administration is practically done and, in the spirit of one of its very basic ideas, administrators should sally forth and see how it works.
DeweyJ. (1924). Logical method and law. Philosophical Review, 33, 560-572.
2.
DielemanS. (2014). Pragmatist tools for public administration. Administration & Society, 1-21. doi:10.1177/0095399714541268
3.
DurantR.AliS. B. (2013). Repositioning American public administration? Citizen estrangement, administrative reform, and the disarticulated state. Public Administration Review, 73, 278-289.
4.
EvansK. (2010). Into the woods: A cautionary tale. Administration & Society, 42, 859-883.
5.
FriedrichC. (1940). Public policy and the nature of administrative responsibility. Public Policy, 1(1), 1-20.
6.
HaackS. (1988). Manifesto of a passionate moderate. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
7.
HarmonM. (2006). Public administration’s final exam: A pragmatist restructuring of the profession and the discipline. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
PutnamH. (1995). Pragmatism: An open question. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
19.
RortyR. (1979). Philosophy and the mirror of nature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
20.
RortyR. (1999). Philosophy and social hope. London, UK: Penguin Group.
21.
SalemP.ShieldsP. (2011). Out of the woods: Facilitating pragmatic inquiry and dialogue. Administration & Society, 43, 124-132.
22.
SeigelM. (1994). Pragmatism applied: Imagining a solution to the problem of court congestion. Hofstra Law Review, 22, 567-624.
23.
SniderK. (2011). On the problem of adopting pragmatism in public administration. Administration & Society, 43, 133-141.
24.
StiversC. (2008). Governance in dark times. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
25.
WaldoD. (2007). The administrative state. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
26.
WhetsellT. (2013). Theory-pluralism in public administration: Epistemology, legitimacy, and method. The American Review of Public Administration, 43, 602-618.
27.
WhetsellT.ShieldsP. (2011). Reconciling the varieties of pragmatism in public administration. Administration & Society, 43, 474-483.
28.
WhiteL. (1926). Introduction to the study of public administration. New York, NY: Macmillan.
29.
WilsonW. (1887). The study of administration. Political Science Quarterly, 2, 197-222.
