The Creed Of Postmodern Public Administration Theory And Its Reflection

The postmodern turn of public administration theory is the rebellious of the traditional Western public administration theory,mainly referring to the United States.It plays an important role in contemporary public administration thought and profoundly influences the development trend of contemporary Western public administration theory.The postmodern turn of public administration theory was involved in the 1970s.In the early 1980s,it has attracted the attention and discussion of Western administrative scholars in the field of public policy.In favor of the public administration theory network(PAT-NET),a more comprehensive and in-depth dialogue on "postmodern" and its possible impact on public administration theory and development space was discussed.In the 1990s,Farmer’s "The Language of Public Administration-Bureaucracy,Modernity and Postmodernity",Miller and Fox’s"Postmodern Public Administration-Toward Discourse" and Max White’s "Public Administration Legitimacy",the emergence of three works in discourse analysis,which proclaimed the postmodern declaration of public administration theory from different angles,and determined the postmodern position and basic principles of public administration theory.With the deepening of this discussion,the post-modern theme of public administration theory has also been extended and expanded.More and more scholars have participated in this discussion.In the first decade of the 21st century,the theme has been divided,external doubts have continued,and internal disputes have also occurred.The postmodern turn of public administration theory is the result of self-examination of the legitimacy of public administration and a response to changes in contemporary social,scientific,and philosophical scenarios.In short,the legitimacy of public administration can be divided into practical legitimacy and subject legitimacy.The legitimacy of public administration comes from different pursuits of managementism and constitutionalism.The legitimacy of public administration is a different answer to the basic problems,basic concepts and basic methods of public administration.The debate on the legitimacy of public administration began with the birth of modern public administration disciplines,and it was accompanied by the development of public administration.The postmodern turn of public administration theory is one of the latest proposals for the debate on the legitimacy of public administration.At the same time,the emergence of new society provides a realistic practical basis and demand for the post-modern turn of public administration theory.The new science represented by quantum mechanics,chaos theory and complexity science lays the epistemological foundation of post-modern public administration theory.In addition,postmodern public administration theory draws a direct theoretical source from postmodernist philosophy.The postmodern turn of public administration theory can be divided into deconstructive theory and constructive theory.First of all,from the perspective of deconstruction,although the goal of postmodern public administration theory is multi-faceted,the criticism and deconstruction of rational bureaucracy is the starting point of its theory.Postmodern public administration theory deconstructs rational bureaucracy from three aspects:subject theory,methodology and value theory.From the subject theory,the rational bureaucracy advocates the individual without personality;from the methodological point of view,logical positivism is regarded as the only scientific method of "political correctness";from the perspective of value theory,efficiencyism(instrumental reason)becomes the guide of all acts.Correspondingly,in the sense of construction,postmodern public administration theory is constructed from four aspects.From the subject theory,the postmodern subject is the individual of "speaking" and has "intentionality";from the theory of knowledge,the principle of social construction of knowledge is adhered to,rejecting"scientific" knowledge;from the methodological point of view,it subverts logical positivism,and follows "anarchism";on the theory of value,highlights the ethical value of "absolute other".In order to truly realize the "other",postmodern public administration theory designed the ideal democratic model and dialogue scene of"discourse game".This paper argues that post-modern public administration theory is a deconstruction of rational bureaucracy,which expands the new discourse space of public administration theory.The construction of postmodern public administration theory is not satisfactory:the realization of discourse democracy,the organizational substitution of rational bureaucracy and the legitimacy of deconstruction all have the possibility of further rebuttal and discussion,and the problems are numerous.Postmodern public administration theory is the product of the public administration identity crisis,but on the other hand it exacerbates this crisis.China is at a major turning point in economic,political,cultural and social changes.The public management administrators who have been the first to be challenged and tested have put forward higher requirements for public administration theory in China.The post-modern turn of public administration theory provides rich ideological resources for the "imagination" of public administration theory in China.At the same time,we also should pay attention to the localization and adaptability of post-modern public administration theory.