Barack Obama is often lauded as a 'pragmatist, ' yet when most
people employ the term, they mean it in the vaguest sense: that
he's practical and willing to compromise to get things done.
However, the public philosophy of pragmatism, which has been the
subject of a rich revival in the past couple of decades, is far
more than this. First developed in the late nineteenth century,
pragmatism is primarily a way of thinking--an anti-dualist
philosophy that attempts to overcome the dichotomies between self
and object, nature and culture, mind and body, theory and practice,
and fact and value. When applied to governance, pragmatists
advocate the use of tactics like third party mediation and
problem-solving to achieve anti-dualist principles: cosmopolitan
localism, analytical holism, progressive conservatism, and
processual structuralism.
In Pragmatist Governance, Chris Ansell begins with a theory of the
concept and then explains why the approach is ideal for addressing
today's governance problems. For instance, while many think that
bureaucracy's unchecked growth is the fundamental problem facing
democracy today, pragmatism suggests the opposite: that public
agencies can effectively manage the relationship between governance
and democracy if they focus on building consent for public
problem-solving. Ansell argues that wishing away bureaucracy will
not do given what we know about the indispensible role of
institutions in contemporary governance. Utilizing pragmatist
concepts, Ansell rethinks the design of institutions, arguing that
they are neither the simple products of rational design that can be
endlessly tinkered with nor 'congealed taste'--where institutions
represent the timeless customs and values of a people. Along with
overcoming this dualism, Ansell also challenges us to rethink our
approach to governance. Instead of moving from one extreme to the
other--from bureaucracy to 'post-bureaucracy' or 'public
entrepreneurialism'--pragmatism would not merely seek to replace
one (hierarchical bureaucracy) with the other (a 'flat, '
entrepreneurial organization), but rather to hitch the two
approaches together in an innovative amalgam where organizational
leaders constantly interact with and learn from street-level
bureaucrats.
Pragmatist Governance concludes that if government is to regain
public trust, the technical knowledge of experts must be brought
together with sensitivity to local problems, situations, and
knowledge. The answer lies not, however, in a diminished
bureaucracy. That may only deepen distrust. Rather, the emphasis
should be on taking the best of both sides to find innovative and
effective ways to solve enduring public problems.
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