Administration, postmodernity and the public-thing(s) or towards a politics of the subject

• Autor(a) principal: Catlaw, Thomas J.
• Data de Publicação: 2003
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Administração Pública
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/6733
• topic: public administration; politics of the subject; politics of the object; postmodernity; liberal democracy.; administração pública; política do sujeito; política do objeto; pós-modernidade; democracia liberal.

This article argues that many of the contemporary dilemmas of government can be understood in terms of the collapse of a “politics of the object.” A politics of the object is primarily concerned with the replication and purification of “the People’s Thing.” It presupposed an element of homogeneity among the People and its form of life. The first half of the essay details thelimitations and possibilities of postmodernity within the presuppositions of liberal democracy that are rendering the very of a “People” and the objective mode of politics constructed around it increasingly untenable. The second half of the essay outlines a “politics of the subject” and describes why thisbreaks with objectivist politics. The essay then demonstrates how public administration occupies the key structural location for affecting such a radically new political life. This opens a path for the creation of a new identity and project for the field of public administration, though not without considerable risk.