Onto the Darkling Plain

Globalization and the American Public Service in the Twenty-First Century

Bibliographic Data

ID6295362
AuthorsMark W Huddleston (University of Delaware, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume10
Issue4
Pages665-684
Publication date2000-10-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1053-1858 • E-ISSN: 1477-9803
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a024286
OpenAlexW2045328884
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited8

Although most people in the public administration community-practitioners and scholars alike-recognize that the American public service must prepare for the challenges of a “globalized” future, the general consensus seems to be that these challenges will be manageable, perhaps even interesting and fun. Drawing on the insights of some contemporary theories of international relations, this article suggests that the impact of globalization on the public service may be considerably less congenial than that. At a minimum, globalization will, through its continuing “hollowing out” of the state, induce crises of accountability, competence, and legitimacy in public administration. Two alternative scenarios that flow from these crises, both of them quite bleak, are discussed in some detail: global regime management and neomedieval administration. The article concludes that these adverse impacts of globalization may well be inevitable in the next century. Efforts to salvage even a reduced role for public administration will require considerable ingenuity

Accountability · Competence (human resources · Economics · Globalization · Ingenuity · Legitimacy · Management · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Public service · Sociology · Law · Ombudsman and Human Rights · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research · Regulation and Compliance Studies

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