Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book recovers Aristotle's understanding of the roles of rhetoric and prudence in public leadership, comparing it to the other major political theories of leadership: utilitarianism, as advocated by J.S. Mill, and duty-ethics, as advocated by Immanuel Kant.
Synopsis
Democratic systems of public administration draw on various schools of political leadership to promote administrative ethics and public responsibility. Contemporary public administrators justify their public leadership through a blend of ethics around pragmatism (Mill's utilitarianism), principle (Kant's deontology or duty-based ethics) and prudence (Aristotle's ethical and political theory). Prudential Public Leadership brings Aristotle back into the front rank of studies of administrative leadership, based in part on the now-neglected reliance on Aristotle by the innovators who shaped the system of democratic public administration in the late nineteenth century.