Rebuilding the Public

Abstract

The chapter sketches a way out of the privatized state, by defending certain constitutional limits on privatization. It articulates, in broad terms, some policy proposals for rebuilding a more democratic and representative system of public administration, such as an educational program for the civil service. It also emphasizes how the education of the civil service should share many of the features of the civic education of citizens. The chapter discusses proposal concerns the introduction of democratic practices within the administrative state through arrangements like codetermination. It examines the purpose of arrangements that strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the administrative state and the citizens' trust in it without compromising its independence from undue political pressures.