A Public Philosophy for Public Administration in Times of Democratic Crisis

ABSTRACT Public administration is at the center of the global democratic crisis. Meeting this challenge requires more than managerial and analytic competence—it requires a public philosophy grounded in the first principles of democratic ethos. We offer such a philosophy, drawing on four seminal thinkers whose concepts reflect the conditions public administrators face in times of democratic crisis. Judith Shklar's liberalism of fear establishes a negative obligation to refuse cruelty and resist its institutionalization. Alasdair MacIntyre's internal goods of practice create a positive obligation to cultivate virtue and protect the integrity of administrative practice. Isaiah Berlin's agony of choice obligates administrators to acknowledge irreducible value conflicts and their consequential impact on democratic life. Hannah Arendt's enlarged mentality provides a framework for thinking across perspectives so that judgment under conflict becomes democratically defensible. Together, these concepts form a public philosophy for public administration with practical significance for administrative judgment, organizational culture, and institutional courage.