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Legitimacy in Public Administration

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

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Synonyms

Accountability; Appropriateness; Reasonableness; Responsiveness

Definitions

Public purpose:

“A governmental action or direction that purports to benefit the populace as a whole” (Wild 2006, p. 212)

Introduction

In a legal sense, the idea of legitimacy is fairly straightforward – what is legitimate complies “with the law; [is] lawful”; beyond this, what is legitimate is also “genuine [and] valid” (Garner 2006, p. 423). From a public administration perspective, though, the discourse over legitimacy has been fraught with disagreement and cries of crises facing the field on fronts of theory and practice. Given the place of administration in the public sphere, sometimes thought to be precarious given the unelected status of administrators, much time and effort has been allotted to defending public administration’s role and function. Such efforts have shifted over time, from a focus on neutrality, expertise, and experience as a reservoir of authenticity and value in the carrying...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Walden University, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Christopher L. Atkinson

  2. School of Public Administration, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    Christopher L. Atkinson

Authors
  1. Christopher L. Atkinson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christopher L. Atkinson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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Atkinson, C.L. (2017). Legitimacy in Public Administration. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_1134-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_1134-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

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