Gaus Lecture: The New Guerrilla Government

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The New Guerrilla Government:  How Big Data, Hyper Social Media and Contracting Out Are Changing the Ethics of Dissent

rosemary-olearyFriday, September 2, 6:30 t0 7:30 PM

The John Gaus Award and Lectureship honors the recipient’s lifetime of exemplary scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration and, more generally, recognizes and encourages scholarship in public administration.

From “constructive contributors” to “deviant destroyers,” government guerrillas work clandestinely against the wishes of their superiors often because they are dissatisfied with the actions of the organizations for which they work.  For most of these public servants, their actions are a form of dissent.  In her Gaus lecture, Rosemary O’Leary focuses on the recent case of Edward Snowden who leaked 1.7 million classified documents to the press.  O’Leary illustrates how big data, hyper social media, and the use of contractors is changing the ethics of dissent.  The majority of guerrilla government cases are the manifestation of inevitable tensions between bureaucracy and democracy, which yield immense ethical and organizational challenges that all public managers must learn to navigate.

View the Online Program