Secularization of public administration

Abstract

At issue is the method used to define values in the discipline. For example, when we discuss ethics, we base our inquiry on "regime values" and ignore the broader established literature concerning the "common spiritual values of mankind." Like much of western culture, secularization as a value strongly influences public administration. This article examines the history of values in public administration research and questions secularization with its removal of linkage between spiritual wisdom and public values. Research in public administration evolved from a value-neutral basis immortalized in Woodrow Wilson's political/administrative dichotomy, to a logical positivism basis advanced by Herbert Simon, to a call for the return to value-based traditions. Recent research in the field, including research on ethics for public administrators, has acknowledged that values do play an integral role and that the value-free neutrality approach was invalid. This article makes the case that public administration should not narrow its choice of values to only secularization but should use the full range of human inquiry available to us, including the various Holy Scriptures from not only the Jewish and Christian traditions but other traditions as well, such as the Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic.