Wolfgang Drechsler
Biographic Data
| ID | 208306 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Wolfgang Drechsler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Wolfgang |
| FAMILY NAME | Drechsler |
| SIGNATURE | DRECHSLER W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tallinn University of Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2880-329X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 52 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Beyond the attention economy, towards an ecology of attending. A manifesto
We endorse policymakers’ efforts to address the negative consequences of the attention economy’s technology but add that these approaches are often limited in their criticism of the systemic context of human attention. Starting from Buddhist philosophy, we advocate a broader approach: an ‘ecology of attending’ that centers on conceptualizing, designing, and using attention (1) in an embedded way and (2) focused on the alleviating of suffering. Wi…
The contribution of the humanities to the theory and practice of public administration in the 21st century
This Forum Article integrates a range of four contributions which are all underpinned by the conviction that the rediscovery of the humanities may be beneficial to the field of public administration. The first piece examines the contribution that philosophy, as a key discipline of the humanities, can provide to the field of public administration; notably, the piece reflects on the ‘fixation with numbers’ that seems to characterise large part of r…
Islamic public administration and Islamic public value: Towards a research agenda
This essay explores whether religion has a place in addressing public challenges, particularly in the context of Non-Western Public Administration paradigms such as Confucian, Buddhist, and Islamic. The authors focus on Islam as a case study and highlight the need for real-life cases to build a grounded theory. To this end, the essay documents the authors’ ongoing research on Islamic Public Value. We argue that to understand Public Administration…
The New Neo-Weberian State
The new Neo-Weberian State is the contemporary, the current iteration of Weberian Public Administration—practically, theoretically, and normatively. Geert Bouckaert’s updates convincingly show that both the Neo-Weberian State itself and original Weberian PA possess the resources to address contemporary questions both of the scholarly-theoretical development of Public Administration and the associated ethical challenges. In order to illustrate thi…
Buddhism, Wealth, and Privilege: Ambedkar and Habermas
This essay compares key essays on Buddhism by B.R. Ambedkar and Jürgen Habermas vis-à-vis the issue of Buddhism, wealth, and privilege, and the respective statements again to what the Buddha taught, from a Theravada perspective. In doing so, it can be seen that Buddhism does not indeed endorse privilege in this world-but what seems to be privilege and inherited wealth are actual merits from a former life. Since these come with their own dangers, …
Islamic Public Administration in Sunlight and Shadow: Theory and Practice
The combination of theoretical principles and centuries-old, yet still functional, practices and institutions that together form the Islamic paradigm of public administration (PA) have customarily been absent from both academic literature and PA reform policies, not least in the NISPAcee region. With, e. g., the arrival of Peter’s Administrative Traditions last year, however, Islamic PA has now been positioned within the mainstream, that is, reco…
Max Weber and the Neo-Weberian State: A workshop and a Max Weber Studies Theme Issue
Towards a Theory of Value as a Commons
This essay aspires to explore the contours of a theory of value based on the commons. Its starting point is an understanding of value as a means through which empirical economic phenomena are guided by an underlying structure. Value is understood as the way people’s actions become meaningful to them within a broader social whole defined by the said structure. We approach the digital commons as such a social whole, articulated by distinct value pr…
In the Semi‐Shadow of the Global West: Moroccan zawāyā as Good Public Administration
The 2020 international protests addressing structural racism and colonial legacies have also questioned Western ascendancy on defining (good) governance. Non‐Western traditional forms of governance surviving today, despite not receiving much academic attention, pose an obvious alternative. This study analyses key indigenous institutions in Morocco known as zawāyā, and in doing so, fills some of the lacunae on Islamic‐African public administration…
Development Challenges in Bhutan: Perspectives on Inequality and Gross National Happiness; Tantric State: A Buddhist Approach to Democracy and Development in Bhutan; Democratic Transition in Bhutan: P…
Bhutan, the last of the Himalayan Kingdoms, started to capture global attention a few decades ago: for its Shangri-La like nature and culture; for its concept of “Gross National Happiness” (GNH); a
Good Bureaucracy: Max Weber and Public Administration Today
drechslerMax Weber passed away on
Max Weber and the Mandate of Heaven
How can China's eminence in the global economy during the era from 1000 to 1750 be reconciled with its Confucian system of government and administration, which allegedly did not focus on the economy at all? The answer might lie in the concept of the Mandate of Heaven, which provided the Confucian bureaucracy with a severe performance imperative, a point made forcefully if very implicitly—almost unconsciously—by Max Weber in his Confucianism study…
The politics of bureaucracy: The Central and Eastern European perspective
Keywords bureaucracy, Central and Eastern Europe, civil service reform, comparative public administration, post-communist transition, public administration, regulation
The Reality and Diversity of Buddhist Economics
This essay develops three central points: Buddhist economics (BE), like most religion-based economics, is not only an extrapolation from the basic texts but is also how BE has recently been practiced. Examples of that practice include the application of the concept of "Gross National Happiness" in Bhutan, the implementation of a "sufficiency economy" in Thailand, and action based on the principle of the Unification of King and People in Yogyakart…
Islamic Public Administration in Europe
Tracing the influence of institutional Islamic Public Administration in Europe, the chapter looks at the four European Muslim-majority countries, Turkey, Albania, (the Federation of) Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. All are successor states to the Ottoman Empire, with its own specific Islamic administrative system, which has been reassessed during the last 25 years as very sophisticated and effective. Bosnia, Kosovo, and Albania today, however…
Wang Anshi’s economic reforms: Proto-Keynesian economic policy in Song Dynasty China
The parallel between the economic reforms of Chinese Song Dynasty Chancellor Wang Anshi and those associated with Keynesianism has been rather neglected so far. However, understanding the original ideas of Wang Anshi’s economic thought and his reform policies, and comparing those with John Maynard Keynes’, we argue that Wang Anshi’s reforms well deserve the label of ‘proto-Keynesianism’. Both sides reach a consensus about the importance of govern…
Agile local governments: Experimentation before implementation
Debate: Islamic PA—does it exist, what is it, and why and how should we study it?
Is there such a thing as Islamic public administration (PA), let alone public management (PM)? Not if we believe that there is only one style of global good public managerial practice and that ther...
Should Law Keep Pace With Technology? Law as Katechon
It is a commonly held belief that the law is unable to keep up with the fierce technological development and innovation that denote our times. The current essay attempts to show that this characteristic of the law should not necessarily be considered a disadvantage. Using the Biblical concept of the katechon, we argue that the law fulfills a katechontic function vis-a-vis technological progress. That is to say, its retarding effect might create p…
Three paradigms of governance and administration: Chinese, Western and Islamic
This essay argues that there are (at least) three paradigms of governance and especially public administration: Chinese, Western, and Islamic — paradigms understood here as potentiality and theory rather than reality and practice as observed today. It then discusses classical Chinese, i.e. Confucian, and Islamic, specifically Ottoman, public administration, from this perspective. The guiding question is whether we arrive more easily at good publi…
Commons-based peer production and artistic expression: Two cases from Greece
This essay narrates, from a creator-observation perspective, the production of two works of fiction, a book of short stories and a play, based on the principles and technologies of Commons-based peer production. This is potentially interesting from both the Commons-based peer production and the literary perspective. Even though both seem well-matched by their prima facie lack of profit orientation, Commons-based peer production case studies rarel…
Peer Production and Desktop Manufacturing: The Case of the Helix_T Wind Turbine Project
Through the case of the Helix_T wind turbine project, this article sets out to argue two points: first, on a theoretical level, that Commons-based peer production, in conjunction with the emerging technological capabilities of three-dimensional printing, can also produce promising hardware, globally designed and locally produced. Second, the Commons-oriented wind turbine examined here is also meant to practically contribute to the quest for novel…
Dantes Inferno: Zur Geschichte der Höllenvermessung und des Höllentrichtermotivs
Political semiotics
The current article is a problem-oriented look at (the image of) political semiotics from the sphere of the inquiry into the political. It first looks at the relevant features of the political and semiotics, and then addresses political semiotics, both contents-wise and as the two elements relate to each other. A sketch of how political semiotics exists today follows — first concerning the context of political science, and then as far as the actu…
Niccolò Machiavelli, Dichter: Poeta: Mit sämtlichen Gedichten deutsch/italienisch: Con tutte le poesie tedesco/italiano
Three paradigms of governance and administration: Chinese, Western and Islamic
This essay argues that there are (at least) three paradigms of governance and especially public administration: Chinese, Western, and Islamic — paradigms understood here as potentiality and theory rather than reality and practice as observed today. It then discusses classical Chinese, i.e. Confucian, and Islamic, specifically Ottoman, public administration, from this perspective. The guiding question is whether we arrive more easily at good publi…
Agile local governments: Experimentation before implementation
Good Bureaucracy: Max Weber and Public Administration Today
drechslerMax Weber passed away on
The Reality and Diversity of Buddhist Economics
This essay develops three central points: Buddhist economics (BE), like most religion-based economics, is not only an extrapolation from the basic texts but is also how BE has recently been practiced. Examples of that practice include the application of the concept of "Gross National Happiness" in Bhutan, the implementation of a "sufficiency economy" in Thailand, and action based on the principle of the Unification of King and People in Yogyakart…
Peer Production and Desktop Manufacturing: The Case of the Helix_T Wind Turbine Project
Through the case of the Helix_T wind turbine project, this article sets out to argue two points: first, on a theoretical level, that Commons-based peer production, in conjunction with the emerging technological capabilities of three-dimensional printing, can also produce promising hardware, globally designed and locally produced. Second, the Commons-oriented wind turbine examined here is also meant to practically contribute to the quest for novel…
Max Weber and the Mandate of Heaven
How can China's eminence in the global economy during the era from 1000 to 1750 be reconciled with its Confucian system of government and administration, which allegedly did not focus on the economy at all? The answer might lie in the concept of the Mandate of Heaven, which provided the Confucian bureaucracy with a severe performance imperative, a point made forcefully if very implicitly—almost unconsciously—by Max Weber in his Confucianism study…
Islamic public administration and Islamic public value: Towards a research agenda
This essay explores whether religion has a place in addressing public challenges, particularly in the context of Non-Western Public Administration paradigms such as Confucian, Buddhist, and Islamic. The authors focus on Islam as a case study and highlight the need for real-life cases to build a grounded theory. To this end, the essay documents the authors’ ongoing research on Islamic Public Value. We argue that to understand Public Administration…
The New Neo-Weberian State
The new Neo-Weberian State is the contemporary, the current iteration of Weberian Public Administration—practically, theoretically, and normatively. Geert Bouckaert’s updates convincingly show that both the Neo-Weberian State itself and original Weberian PA possess the resources to address contemporary questions both of the scholarly-theoretical development of Public Administration and the associated ethical challenges. In order to illustrate thi…
Towards a Theory of Value as a Commons
This essay aspires to explore the contours of a theory of value based on the commons. Its starting point is an understanding of value as a means through which empirical economic phenomena are guided by an underlying structure. Value is understood as the way people’s actions become meaningful to them within a broader social whole defined by the said structure. We approach the digital commons as such a social whole, articulated by distinct value pr…
The politics of bureaucracy: The Central and Eastern European perspective
Keywords bureaucracy, Central and Eastern Europe, civil service reform, comparative public administration, post-communist transition, public administration, regulation
Political semiotics
The current article is a problem-oriented look at (the image of) political semiotics from the sphere of the inquiry into the political. It first looks at the relevant features of the political and semiotics, and then addresses political semiotics, both contents-wise and as the two elements relate to each other. A sketch of how political semiotics exists today follows — first concerning the context of political science, and then as far as the actu…
German Holism Revisited: Really
Anne Harrington, Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University, has written a so far very well-received book on the history of holism in Germany. The biographies of four men are at its center: Jakob von Uexkull, Constantin von Monakow, Max Wertheimer and Kurt Goldstein—although Christian von Ehrenfels, Wolfgang Kohler, Hans Driesch and others receive considerable treatment as well. It is not clear on which basis the four main characte…
A Report on the Congressional Fellowship Program, 1988-89 and 1989-90
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On German Geist
This essay first argues that Geist, in the connex with "German", can be translated, following N. Hartmann, as "Spirit". Elements stemming from
Karl Bücher in Dorpat
Dorpat (now Tartu). The present essay details especially the situation of the University during that time; the history of Bcher's Chair, which is argued tobe one of the most eminent at Dorpat, attracting internationally reputable scholars; the relations between Baltic Germans, Imperial Germans, Russians, and Estonians; the identity problem of the Baltic Germans in the context of both the German and the Russian nation state; and the language quest…
Multiculturalism as Such and in Estonia
Wolfgang Drechsler': Ladies and gentlemen, the panel discussion which I have been asked to chair will have two parts: First, a conversation between the panelists and myself, in order to wrap up the conference along certain questions that pose themselves. Second, we shall open the floor to the audience, and all those who want to ask or state something are more than welcome to do so
The Philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer
Chisholm and Davidson; one on Habermas is
The philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer
Review: The philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer. The Library of Living Philosophers, vol. XXIV
Herrn Eugen Dührings Remotion
Otto Kaiser Zum 75: Preface to an Estonian Collection
Spring term 1995 and Fall term 1997), on the occasion of his 75 birthday on 30 November 1999
German Holism Revisited: Really
Anne Harrington, Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University, has written a so far very well-received book on the history of holism in Germany. The biographies of four men are at its center: Jakob von Uexkull, Constantin von Monakow, Max Wertheimer and Kurt Goldstein—although Christian von Ehrenfels, Wolfgang Kohler, Hans Driesch and others receive considerable treatment as well. It is not clear on which basis the four main characte…
E-Voting in Estonia
Estonia is widely credited to be a pioneer in e-governance and especially e-democracy. It has frequently been expected, too, that Estonia will be the leading country for e-voting, introducing it already for the national elections of 2003. However, in the very last changes of the respective laws, the Estonian Parliament has voted for e-voting, not for the immediate future, but only with a delay of implementation until the year 2005. Still, to our …
Venice Misappropriated
Scholarship concerning Venice has long been a particularly fruitful and fascinating venue, both for those to whom the city herself was the focus of attention and for those who were interested in other matters for which Venice served as a unique case study or laboratory. For anyone dealing, directly or indirectly, with Venice as a polis, as a form of structured human living-together in a specific time and space, the key point is that she turned ou…
Governance, Good Governance, and Government: The Case for Estonian Administrative Capacity
After a short case study of (Good) Governance in Estonia, this article focuses on one of the key shortcomings in Estonian government, especially after EU accession: the administrative capacity problem. This is intimately linked with the New Public Management (NPM), upon which, in turn, Good Governance as a world view largely rests. The problems and fate of the NPM paradigm are traced and then applied to the Estonian situation. After outlining the…
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900): Economy and Society
The Contrade, the Palio, and the Ben Comune: Lessons From Siena
Siena's unusually high level of both wealth and social capital and extremely low level of crime make it, in spite of all its specificity, an obvious object of lesson-drawing for other communities. The reason of Siena's success seems to be the historic contrade system, which again is closely linked to the famous horse-race, the Palio. Based on recent literature, and corroborated in situ, this essay sets out to investigate how the Palio-contrade co…
Niccolò Machiavelli, Dichter: Poeta: Mit sämtlichen Gedichten deutsch/italienisch: Con tutte le poesie tedesco/italiano
Dantes Inferno: Zur Geschichte der Höllenvermessung und des Höllentrichtermotivs
Political semiotics
The current article is a problem-oriented look at (the image of) political semiotics from the sphere of the inquiry into the political. It first looks at the relevant features of the political and semiotics, and then addresses political semiotics, both contents-wise and as the two elements relate to each other. A sketch of how political semiotics exists today follows — first concerning the context of political science, and then as far as the actu…
Three paradigms of governance and administration: Chinese, Western and Islamic
This essay argues that there are (at least) three paradigms of governance and especially public administration: Chinese, Western, and Islamic — paradigms understood here as potentiality and theory rather than reality and practice as observed today. It then discusses classical Chinese, i.e. Confucian, and Islamic, specifically Ottoman, public administration, from this perspective. The guiding question is whether we arrive more easily at good publi…
Commons-based peer production and artistic expression: Two cases from Greece
This essay narrates, from a creator-observation perspective, the production of two works of fiction, a book of short stories and a play, based on the principles and technologies of Commons-based peer production. This is potentially interesting from both the Commons-based peer production and the literary perspective. Even though both seem well-matched by their prima facie lack of profit orientation, Commons-based peer production case studies rarel…
Peer Production and Desktop Manufacturing: The Case of the Helix_T Wind Turbine Project
Through the case of the Helix_T wind turbine project, this article sets out to argue two points: first, on a theoretical level, that Commons-based peer production, in conjunction with the emerging technological capabilities of three-dimensional printing, can also produce promising hardware, globally designed and locally produced. Second, the Commons-oriented wind turbine examined here is also meant to practically contribute to the quest for novel…
Should Law Keep Pace With Technology? Law as Katechon
It is a commonly held belief that the law is unable to keep up with the fierce technological development and innovation that denote our times. The current essay attempts to show that this characteristic of the law should not necessarily be considered a disadvantage. Using the Biblical concept of the katechon, we argue that the law fulfills a katechontic function vis-a-vis technological progress. That is to say, its retarding effect might create p…
Debate: Islamic PA—does it exist, what is it, and why and how should we study it?
Is there such a thing as Islamic public administration (PA), let alone public management (PM)? Not if we believe that there is only one style of global good public managerial practice and that ther...
Agile local governments: Experimentation before implementation
Islamic Public Administration in Europe
Tracing the influence of institutional Islamic Public Administration in Europe, the chapter looks at the four European Muslim-majority countries, Turkey, Albania, (the Federation of) Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. All are successor states to the Ottoman Empire, with its own specific Islamic administrative system, which has been reassessed during the last 25 years as very sophisticated and effective. Bosnia, Kosovo, and Albania today, however…
Wang Anshi’s economic reforms: Proto-Keynesian economic policy in Song Dynasty China
The parallel between the economic reforms of Chinese Song Dynasty Chancellor Wang Anshi and those associated with Keynesianism has been rather neglected so far. However, understanding the original ideas of Wang Anshi’s economic thought and his reform policies, and comparing those with John Maynard Keynes’, we argue that Wang Anshi’s reforms well deserve the label of ‘proto-Keynesianism’. Both sides reach a consensus about the importance of govern…
Political science (29 works) · Law (23 works) · Philosophy (21 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Epistemology (14 works) · Economics (12 works) · Public Administration (12 works) · Politics (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Law (8 works)