California Public Management Casebook

California Public Management Casebook
Barry Keene, ed., 245pp, Book #3915, $21.95

     Our hopes for a better world depend on attracting to government leaders who not only have good intentions, but the wisdom to see the difference between good intentions and good public policy and the political skills to see that the best of their good intentions become law.  These cases will help students better understand and appreciate the difficult realities of public service.

Too many bright, able people who might play a productive role in politics are put off by ethical fears that they will be consumed by the dark side of political life, intellectual fears that they will be consigned to a wasteland of frustrating ineffectiveness, or security fears that their careers will be jeopardized by the vagaries of politics. These cases contain lessons designed to assuage such fears and suggest a repertoire of responses to political dilemmas. Some examples:

• Ethical concerns need not be sacrificed for effectiveness if, and only if, a person is able to distinguish between a compromise and a sellout.

• Intellect and research can narrow, but not eliminate the need for value‑based considerations. It is at best naive, at worst arrogant to think that good ideas will speak so powerfully for themselves that failure to embrace them is unthinkable. Many good ideas, lacking an able and articulate champion, are swept into the dustbin of history.

• Often, the best professional administrators, having climbed to the highest plateaus of bureaucracy, find their careers short‑lived because they disdain political consequences of choices or allow themselves to be micromanaged by uninformed superiors.  
  
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      Barry Keene retired from public life in 1993, after a quarter century of service. He was Senate Majority Leader and  chairman of its Judiciary Committee. In the lower house, he chaired the Assembly Health Committee. He specialized in innovative, transformational legislation in the health and environmental fields. Upon retirement, he was a visiting professor at Stanford University; at California State University, Sacramento, and at the McGeorge School of Law. Currently affiliated with the Center for California Studies, he is the author of numerous articles on government and politics.