THE ROLE OF THE

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• THE ROLE OF THE
• PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR
• IN PROMOTING SOCIAL EQUITY
• Presenters
• Lindsey L. Evans (VCU)
• Susan T. Gooden (VCU)
• Blue Wooldridge (VCU)
• Discussant
• Jean-Claude Garcia-Zamor (FIU)

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• American Society of Public Administration's
  (ASPA) 69th Annual Conference
• Transformational Public Administration
• A Call for Public Service
• DALLAS, TEXAS
• 7-11 MARCH, 2008

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• SOCIAL EQUITY
• The fair, just and equitable management of all
  institutions serving the public directly or by
  contract, and the fair and equitable distribution
  of public services, and implementation of public
  policy, and the commitment to promote fairness,
  justice, and equity in the formation of public
  policy (National Academy of Public
  Administration, Standing Panel on Social Equity).

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• Social Equity is fairness in the delivery of
  public services it is egalitarianism in action -
  the principle that each citizen, regardless of
  economic resources or personal traits, deserves
  and has a right to be given equal treatment by
  the political system (Shafritz and Russell 2003,
  395)

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• Equity, of course, involves a sense of fairness
  or justicespecifically, the correction of
  existing imbalances in the distribution of social
  and political values. In contrast to equal
  treatment for all, equity proposes that benefits
  be greater for those most disadvantaged
  (Denhardt 2004, 105).

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• Svara and Brunet (2004, 100) suggest that,
  Definitions (for Social Equity) can range from
  simple fairness and equal treatment to
  redistribution and reducing inequalities.
• John Rawls developed a principle of justice as
  fairness in which each person is to have an
  equal right to the most extensive basic liberty
  compatible with a similar liberty for all (1971,
  250).

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• WHY SHOULD PUBLIC ADMINISTRATORS BE PROMOTING
  SOCIAL EQUITY?

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• The 2003 Futures Report, Divided We Fall
  Inequality and the Future of Americas Cities and
  Towns, states
• Governments at all levels is in part responsible
  for many of the glaring inequalities we see
  today and should therefore lead the way to
  solutions. Public policies adopted over time at
  the federal, state, and local levels have created
  and exacerbated many of the inequalities that our
  communities are struggling with today .

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• . Political theorists Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  warned in The Social Contract (as cited in
  Shafritz and Russell, 2004, p. 434) It is
  precisely because the force of circumstances
  tends always to destroy equality that the force
  of legislation must always tend to maintain it.
  Roger Wilkins (2001) in his keynote speech to the
  NAPA Leadership Conference on Social Equity in
  Governance states that public administrators have
  an obligation to find ways of strengthening the
  weak, poor, and in need of our society.

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• A recent UN Organizations for Economic
  Cooperation and Development Conference on Social
  Equity, Economic Growth and Good Governance
  stated that The balancing of social equity,
  economic growth and good governance is at the
  heart of nation building and policy formation
  and that achieving this balance becomes even
  more pertinent as nations confront new challenges
  and new decisions (Kondo, P. 2001 p. 2).

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• We must recognize the full human equality of all
  people before God, before the law, and in the
  councils of government. We must do this, not
  because it is economically advantageous, although
  it is not because of the laws of God command it,
  although they do not because people in other
  lands wish it so. We must do it for the single
  and fundamental reason that it is the right thing
  to do.
• Robert F. Kennedy,
• University of Capetown South Africa
• June 6, 1966

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• Blue WooldridgeFellow, National Academy of
  Public Administrationand Professor The L.
  Douglas WilderSchool of Government and Public
  AffairsVIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITYRichmond,
  VA 23284-2028
• bwooldri_at_vcu.edu
• www.people.vcu.edu/bwooldri

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• PROMOTING SOCIAL EQUITY
• IN AN ERA OF RE-INVENTION AND THE NEW GOVERNANCE

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• In my article Protecting equity while
  reinventing government Strategies for achieving
  a fair distribution of the costs and benefits
  of the public sector. Journal of Public
  Management and Social Policy, 4 (1), 67-80 (also
  found under Social Equity on my website
  www.people.vcu.edu/bwooldri, I attempt to
  identify the Social Equity consequences of
  implementing the 10 principles of an
  entrepreneurial public organization.

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• Osborne Gaeblers 10 Principles of an
• Entrepreneurial Public Organization.
• Catalytic
• Community Owned
• Competitive
• Mission-Driven
• Results-Oriented

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• Osborne Gaeblers 10 Principles of an
• Entrepreneurial Public Organization. (cont)
• Customer-Driven
• Enterprising
• Anticipatory
• Decentralized
• Market-Oriented

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• THE NEW GOVERNANCE
• DESCRIBES THE CENTRAL REALITY OF PUBLIC PROBLEM
  SOLVING FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURENAMELY ITS
  COLLABORATIVE NATURE, ITS RELIANCE ON A WIDE
  ARRAY OF THIRD PARTIES IN ADDITION TO GOVERNMENT
  TO ADDRESS PUBLIC PROBLEMS AND PURSUE PUBLIC
  PURPOSES. (Salamon, 2002, p. 8).

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• THE IMPORTANCE OF THE NEW GOVERNANCE
• In 1999 the Board of Trustees of the National
  Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) appointed
  a Priority Issues Task Force to recommend what
  issues ought to provide the focus for NAPAs work
  over the next several years. As the Report of
  the Priority Issues Task Force points out
• Among the scores of issues identified as
  candidates, the members of the Task Force found
  themselves continually returning to a single,
  overarching theme Governance, in the United
  States and around the world, is undergoing a
  fundamental transformation, in an ever-evolving
  number of ways. In pursuing the missions,
  government agencies to a large and growing degree
  share responsibility with other governmental
  agencies and with non-governmental institutions.
  This transformation is redefining institutional
  roles and straining the capacities of all those
  involved in the pursuit of public purpose (Report
  of the Priority Issues Task Force, 2002, pp.
  1-2).

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• Lester Salamon of the John Hopkins University
  has fourteen, Tools of Governance. These are
• DIRECT GOVERNMENT
• GOVERNMENT CORPORATIONS AND
• GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED ENTERPRISES
• ECONOMIC REGULATION
• SOCIAL REGULATION
• GOVERNMENT INSURANCE
• PUBLIC INFORMATION
• CORRECTIVE TAXES, CHARGES
• AND TRADABLE PERMITS
• CONTRACTING
• PURCHASE-OF-SERVICE CONTRACTING
• GRANTS
• LOANS AND LOAN GUARANTEES
• TAX EXPENDITURES
• VOUCHERS
• TORT LIABILITY

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• In the 19th Century, Charles Darwin stated "If
  the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws
  of nature, but by our institutions, great is our
  sin."

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• REFERENCES
• Denhardt, Robert B. (2004). Theories of Public
  Organizations 3rd ed. Belmont, CAThomson-Wadswort
  h.
• National League of Cities (2003). Divided We
  Fall Inequality and the Future of Americas
  Cities and Towns. 2003 Futures Report. National
  League of Cities Washington, DC. www.nlc.org.
• Osborne, D. Gaebler, T. (1992). Reinventing
  Government How the Entrepreneurial
• Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector from
  Schoolhouse to Statehouse, City Hall to
• Pentagon. Reading, MA Addison-Wesley
  Publishing Company, Inc.
• Rawls, J. (1971). A Theory of Justice.
  Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press
• Salamon, Lester M. (2002), ed. The Tools of
  Government. Oxford, UK Oxford University Press
• Shafritz, J. M. Russell, E. W. (2004)
  Introducing Public Administration
• 4th Edition, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
• Svara, J. Brunet, J. (2004). Filling in the
  Skeletal Pillar Addressing Social Equity in
  Introductory Courses in Public Administration.
  Journal of Public Affairs
• Education. Vol. 10, No. 2. pp99-110.
• United Nations Development Programme (2003) Human
  Development Report 2003
• http//www.undp.org./hrd2003.
• Wilkins, R. (2001). Proceedings of the keynote
  address NAPA Leadership
• Conference on Social Equity in Governance.
  Dallas, Texas. Retrieved
• December 1, 2003 from http//www.napawash.org/aa_
  social_equit/papers_publications.html.)
• Wooldridge, B. (1998). Protecting Equity while
  Reinventing Government Strategies for achieving
  a Fair Distribution of the Costs and Benefits
  of the Public Sector. Journal of Public
  Management and Social Policy Vol. 4 (1) pp.
  67-80. Also under Social Equity and Public
  Policy at www.people.vcu.edu/bluewooldridge