DSJ and the election

The ASPA section Democracy and Social Justice was created in response to a regressive national political and economic environment. There are no easy solutions to the current situation and the regressive impulses that created it may well visit us again in the future.

I came of age during the turbulent 1960s, a time when it seemed that movement toward a progressive America might be sustainable. It wasn't, then, and I am skeptical about the prospects today. Nevertheless, as I watched the faces of the people in Grant Park in Chicago on television during Barack Obama's remarkable speech on election night, it seemed to me a new America might be revealing itself, a cosmopolitan, tolerant place not as easily susceptible to appeals to anti-intellectualism, violence, racism, environmental destruction, and social inequality.

Whether or not the demographics of age and diversity are sufficient to sustain this potential new America remains to be seen. Even so, in public administration and in DSJ we may have in hand a remarkable opportunity to promote long-lasting movement in ideas and attitudes. As I wrote recently in Making a Difference: Progressive Values in Public Administration (2008, p. 124), "There is little any one of us can do to change the basic characteristics of our political and economic surroundings as a whole. However, in our particular corner of society, the study and practice of professional public service, those with a passion for change can make a difference both in how things are done and in how people think about regressive and progressive values."

Richard Box is a professor at University of Nebraska at Omaha and current chairperson of DSJ.