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- Title
To a Higher Realism.
- Authors
Stanley, David T.
- Abstract
Realism is one reason for having a professional society interested in how governments work. It is the member's mission and burden to be, in the words of Webster, "preoccupied with fact or reality," possessed of a "disposition to think and act objectively and unemotionally and to reject what is impractical or visionary." The problem over the years has been the pressure to practice lower realism, short-term practicality. Realism no longer denies public employment to a quarter-literate, despairing, but salvageable, citizen. Practicality is now less likely to result in budget cuts for the planning staff. It is becoming pragmatic to incorporate environmental protection into the design of new municipal utilities. The higher realism increases the clarity of governmental perceptions and incorporates humanitarian and environmental considerations into plans, estimates and decisions. The higher realism takes a skeptical look at judgments that a state legislature can do nothing more for a decaying city; that tax limits have been reached; that community action programs must be bounded by the prejudices of the power structure.
- Subjects
PUBLIC administration; EMPIRICISM; REALISM; EDITORIALS; GOVERNMENT policy; VISIONARIES; EJECTION (Psychology); ENVIRONMENTAL protection
- Publication
Public Administration Review, 1971, Vol 31, Issue 4, p407
- ISSN
0033-3352
- Publication type
Editorial
- DOI
10.2307/975018