Changing Homeland Security: An Opportunity for Competence

Abstract

Hurricane Katrina shattered any beliefs that the nation's homeland security system was ready for a major terrorist attack. Public administrators staff that system. Katrina provides an opportunity to review the central normative premise of public administration: competence. This article briefly reviews the changing competence frameworks that have guided public administration since the 1880s. Over the last 100 years, administrators have been seen as artisans, scientists, social reformers, and managers. The ineptness of the public sector's response to Katrina reminds us -- however briefly -- that for the last 30 years, government has been seen as the enemy, the problem to be solved -- not the partner in finding solutions. The result is a demoralized and dysfunctional public workforce. The American homeland can never be secure until the public workforce recreates the spirit of competent service so glaringly absent in the wake of Katrina.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2005
Accession Number
ADA484201

Entities

People

  • Christopher Bellavita

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Commerce
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Disasters
  • Employment
  • Governments
  • Homeland Defense
  • Homeland Security
  • Louisiana
  • Management Personnel
  • National Governments
  • New York
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Political Science
  • Public Administration
  • Security
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.