An Agenda for Public Administration in the Postmodern Era: The Search for Order out of Chaos

Abstract

AbstractMuch of the turbulence in the postindustrial and postmodern era (globalization, informatization of society, and diffusion of national boundaries) unfolds outside the mainstream, norm-oriented public administration. How might public administration scholars and practitioners better understand the current and anticipated turbulence in the postindustrial and postmodern era? The author argues that it is imperative to shift our mind from the Newtonian/Weberian rational-positivist paradigm because turbulent disorder defies common sense and rational expectations to the domain of chaos (as opposed to order) which us always with us but which we do not normally recognize. In an effort to draw some insights about the workings of chaos and paradox in public administration, the author takes an excursion through new science and examines three epistemological discoveries from quantum physics and the second law of thermodynamics: complementarity, unpredictability, and dissipative structures. The insights from this...