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Leadership & Management
The ability to lead and manage in the public interest is the first core competency of the MPA program. This page includes papers which exemplify leadership and management.
An Exercise in the Application of Political Prudence:
The United States Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement
This paper examines J. Patrick Dobel’s 1998 article Political Prudence and the Ethics of Leadership. Dobel identifies seven principles for leaders to apply when facing tough ethical decisions and include the following: timing, linking means and ends, openness to experience and reason, building community, foresight, seeking durability and legitimacy of outcomes, and deploying power. Taken a step further, this paper applies Dobel’s hallmarks of prudent decision making to the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. After considering each of the seven principles, it can be argued that the Trump Administration’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement was imprudent and lacked ethical footing. This exercise of analyzing politically ambiguous situations and applying sensible thought processes builds critical decision-making skills for leaders. And the ability to make prudent, ethical decisions is a vital component when leading and managing in the public interest.
On Tyranny: Critical Lessons from Timothy Snyder
This paper accentuates a selection of lessons from Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny. Overall, Snyder’s book provides 20 lessons to educate readers on the signs and dangers of tyrannical government and how we as citizens can impede this threat to our democracy. Four lessons, however, were selected for deeper analysis and interpretation: defending institutions, standing out in the face of great evil, the importance of reading and being kind to our language, and the value of truth and why we need to believe in it. Each of these lessons links past and present events, from Nazi Germany to post-communist Russia, and even the Trump Administration. Each lesson evaluation also highlights everyday actions that citizens can take to combat tyranny. Leading and managing in the public interest requires that public administrators be defenders of our democracy and its institutions. Only by studying tyranny and those who wield it will leaders be equipped with the knowledge to identify and defeat these threats.