This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Stivers, C. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Public Agency as Polis

Active Citizenship in the Administrative State

Evergreen State College

This article offers a view of active citizenship in an administrative context. It argues that the classic features of active citizenship-authoritative action, public interest focus, practical wisdom, and community can be enacted in an agency setting, when community people join with professional administrators in exercising a measure of administrative discretion. Using a framework developed from the theories of Anthony Giddens, it is suggested that such interaction between lay citizens and administrators, constrained and enabled by bureaucratic rules and resources, constitutes a polis, a public space in which members act together in order to achieve limited ends and to lead a virtuous life. The federal Community Health Center program in the Bureau of Health Care Delivery and Assistance, U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, is offered as an illustration.

Administration & Society, Vol. 22, No. 1, 86-105 (1990)
DOI: 10.1177/009539979002200105


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. Stivers The Ontology of Public Space: Grounding Governance in Social Reality American Behavioral Scientist, March 1, 2009; 52(7): 1095 - 1108. [Abstract] [PDF]

				A. M. Eikenberry Philanthropy, Voluntary Association, and Governance Beyond the State: Giving Circles and Challenges for Democracy Administration Society, November 1, 2007; 39(7): 857 - 882. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. Stivers A Place Like Home: Care and Action in Public Administration The American Review of Public Administration, March 1, 2005; 35(1): 26 - 41. [Abstract] [PDF]

				N. Roberts Public Deliberation in an Age of Direct Citizen Participation The American Review of Public Administration, December 1, 2004; 34(4): 315 - 353. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. S. King Talking Beyond the Rational The American Review of Public Administration, September 1, 2000; 30(3): 271 - 291. [Abstract] [PDF]

				G. Zajac and J. G. Bruhn The Moral Context of Participation in Planned Organizational Change and Learning Administration Society, January 1, 1999; 30(6): 706 - 733. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. Day Citizen Participation in the Planning Process: An Essentially Contested Concept? Journal of Planning Literature, February 1, 1997; 11(3): 421 - 434.

				J. C. Vinzant and T. H. Roback Dilemmas of Legitimacy: The Supreme Court, Patronage, and the Public Interest Administration Society, February 1, 1994; 25(4): 443 - 466. [Abstract]

				H. T. Miller Everyday Politics in Public Administration The American Review of Public Administration, June 1, 1993; 23(2): 99 - 116. [Abstract]

				L. S. Luton Citizen-Administrator Connections: Impacts on Public Facility-Siting Decision Making Administration Society, May 1, 1993; 25(1): 114 - 134. [Abstract]