Dueling Political Fictions and Public Administration and Democracy in an Era of Populism and Authoritarian Impulses
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-28-2026
Publication Title
Public Administration Review
Abstract
The political fictions used in political discourse, during the English Civil War period, remain relevant to contemporary public policy and administration. Mainstream public administration discourse has too often employed the fiction of a singular and unbounded popular sovereignty that emerged during this period, leaving public administration ill-equipped to deal with the authoritarian impulses of contemporary populist governments. What is needed in public administration discourse, in dealing with these authoritarian impulses, is not an ethic of administrative neutrality, such as has traditionally dominated much of our field, but an ethic of constitutionalism that draws on the fiction of the individual that was also articulated during the English Civil War period by the English Levellers and subsequently by the founders of the American Constitution.
Repository Citation
Spicer, Michael W., "Dueling Political Fictions and Public Administration and Democracy in an Era of Populism and Authoritarian Impulses" (2026). All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications. 0 1 2 3 1886.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/urban_facpub/1886
Original Citation
Spicer, M. W. 2026. “ Dueling Political Fictions and Public Administration and Democracy in an Era of Populism and Authoritarian Impulses.” Public Administration Review 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.70230.
DOI
10.1111/puar.70230
