Administration & Society

Scholars commonly study bias and discrimination from the perspective of those discriminated against and, to some extent, the institutional practices that foster discrimination. The research on institutional oppression often excludes a concurrent area of discriminatory omissions. Research on privileged omissions as a discretionary bias provides a more holistic view of discretionary decisionmaking. The concept of discriminatory omissions has limited research, but this paper adds to scholarship in this critical area by providing analysis and calls upon public service practices to disrupt the unintended consequences of privileged omissions.

Does a public administrator’s political orientation color how they perceive the actions and activities of the federal government? Using a long-running national survey, I measure the impact of state administrators’ party identification and ideology on several measures of federal encroachment. I find that self-identified Democratic and liberal administrators are less likely to believe that the federal government is encroaching on state actions and hold more positive evaluations of encroachment when it occurs. Additionally, I find that these beliefs are conditioned on the composition of the federal government, with the largest differences occurring under a Democratic-controlled White House and Congress.

Studies of institutional change have focused on several themes. Yet, examinations of small innovations still require attention. This question is important because a new logic is usually only recognized after several modifications have taken place; thus, noticing it early becomes relevant. The emergence of a new logic presupposes new prescriptions about what is appropriate for both businesses and society. This article examines Brazilian health regulations that have undergone several alterations and suggests that this occurrence can be identified only when actors begin to react to the impact of such an event by changing their daily practices.

The following essay offers a political theory of the expert. I draw connections between the authority derived from expertise to the emerging role of artificial intelligence in a political condition marked by an impersonal sovereign. I begin with a detailed description of the role of the expert and expertise with specific attention to the function of knowledge as a source of authority. Through the work of Max Weber and Carl Schmitt, I connect the political role of the expert to the rise and prominence of the administrative or total state. The essay focuses on the connection between the expert as an authority in the modern state and the emergence of a political logic that invites artificial intelligence into the realm of authority.