This inspirational work encourages Public Administration professionals to participate in progressive social change by advocating progressive values to counter the regressive values currently dominant in American society. The book begins with an analysis of regressive and progressive societal values, and then discusses specific actions PA practitioners, scholars, and teachers can take to build awareness and use of progressive values. The author presents regressive and progressive values in five matched pairs, each representing a continuum of thought and action: aggressiveness and cooperation; belief and knowledge; economics as end, and economics as means; great inequality and limited inequality; and Earth as resource, and Earth as home....

This work gives readers an understanding of how the societal context of public administration is crucial to the success of the practitioner. It covers the key issues of past and present for public service professionals in a democratic society....