This article examines the role of truth and deception in social and political life and its implications for public administration. Because deception is a necessary part of social and political life, the pursuit of absolute truths poses significant dangers to political practices. However, without some commitment to truth in social and political life, the resulting nihilism also endangers political practices. Public administrators, in seeking truth, therefore, should pursue a middle path between moral virtue and moral realism that preserves the practice of politics, a middle path such as is offered in the writings of the Founders of the Constitution.
ArendtH. (2000). The portable Hannah Arendt. Penguin Books.
3.
BaileyS. K. (1964). Ethics and the public service. Public Administration Review, 24(4), 234–243.
4.
CamusA. (1946). The human crisis. Twice a Year, 14–15, 119–133.
5.
CamusA. (1958). Caligula and 3 other plays. Vintage Books.
6.
CamusA. (1979). Selected essays and notebooks. Penguin Books.
7.
CamusA. (1989). The stranger. Vintage Books.
8.
CamusA. (1991a). The fall. Vintage Books.
9.
CamusA. (1991b). The myth of Sisyphus and other essays. Vintage Books.
10.
CamusA. (1991c). The rebel: An essay on man in revolt. Vintage Books.
11.
CooperT. (2004). Big questions in administrative ethics: A need for focused, collaborative effort. Public Administration Review, 64(4), 395–407.
12.
FarmerD. J. (2001). Mapping anti-administration: Introduction to the symposium. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 23(4), 475–492.
13.
FarmerD. J. (2009). A conversation between Song Jinzhou and David John Farmer. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 31(2), 266–281.
14.
GawthropL. C. (1997). Democracy, bureaucracy, and hypocrisy redux: A search for sympathy and compassion. Public Administration Review, 57(3), 205–210.
15.
GrantR. (1997). Hypocrisy and integrity: Machiavelli, Rousseau, and the ethics of politics. University of Chicago Press.
16.
HartD. K. (1984). The virtuous citizen, the honorable bureaucrat, and “public” administration. Public Administration Review, 44, 111–120.
17.
HeskJ. (2000). Deception and democracy in classical Athens. Cambridge University Press.
18.
JayM. (2010). The virtues of mendacity: On lying in politics. University of Virginia Press.
19.
KammenM. (Ed.). (1986). The origins of the American constitution: A documentary history. Penguin Books.
20.
LongN. (1949). Power and administration. Public Administration Review, 9(4), 257–264.
21.
MacIntyreA. (1984). After virtue (2nd ed.). University of Notre Dame Press.
22.
McSwainC. J.WhiteO. F. (1987). The case for lying, cheating, and stealing—Personal development as ethical guidance for managers. Administration & Society, 18(4), 411–432.
23.
PasquerellaL.KillileaA. G. (2005). The ethics of lying in the public interest: Reflections on the “just lie.”Public Integrity, 7(3), 261–273.
24.
PiotrowskiS. J. (2014). Transparency: A regime value linked with ethics. Administration & Society, 46(2), 181–189.
25.
PlattnerM. F. (2010). Populism, pluralism, and liberal democracy. Journal of Democracy, 21(1), 81–92.
26.
RohrJ. A. (1986). To run a constitution: The legitimacy of the administrative state. University Press of Kansas.
27.
RohrJ. A. (1998). Public service, ethics, and constitutional practice. University Press of Kansas.
28.
SimonH. A. (1957). Administrative behavior: A study of decision-making processes in administrative organization (2nd ed.). Macmillan.
29.
SolomonR. (2009). Self, deception, and self-deception in philosophy. In MartinC. (Ed.), The philosophy of deception (pp. 15–36). Oxford University Press.
30.
SpicerM. W. (2010). In defense of politics in public administration: A value pluralist perspective. University of Alabama Press.
31.
ThompsonD. F. (1985). The possibility of administrative ethics. Public Administration Review, 45(5), 555–561.
32.
WilliamsB. (1978). Politics and moral character. In HampshireS. (Ed.), Public and private morality (pp. 55–73). Cambridge University Press.
33.
WillsG. (Ed.). (1982). The federalist papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Bantam Books.
34.
WilsonJ. Q. (1989). Bureaucracy: What government agencies do and why they do it. Basic Books.
35.
WittM. T. (2010). Pretending not to see or hear, refusing to signify: The farce and tragedy of geocentric public affairs scholarship. American Behavioral Scientist, 53(6), 921–939.
