Organizing the Caring Society: Toward a Care Ethical Perspective on Institutions

Abstract

The media as well as academia abounds with debates concerning the present-day ‘crisis of institutions’ and the prospects of improving the quality and reputation of institutions. The growing erosion of trust in public sector institutions has been perceived by many social scientists as an impulse for rethinking the role, meaning, design and management of public institutions in our societies and polities. This chapter aims to contribute to this rethinking from the perspective of a moral and political theory of care. It first traces the debates about social and political institutions in the care ethics literature and argues that a theory of institutions is an inherent part of any full-blown moral and political theory of care. The chapter then provides a bird-eye view of the existing proposals for a care-oriented public administration, with a focus on a recent discussion about the possibility of merging the values of care and bureaucracy in state and public sector institutions. Finally, the chapter suggests an empirically grounded care-oriented approach to governmental institutions.