Guerrillas in government are all around us. They can be as high profile as “Deep Throat,” or as low profile as the bureaucrat who belligerently slows the processing of an application for a driver’s license. Their dissent stems from dissatisfaction with the actions of public organizations they work for, but they strategically choose not to go public with their concerns. Instead, they work against the wishes—either implicitly or explicitly communicated—of their superiors and run the spectrum from anti-establishment liberals to fundamentalist conservatives, from constructive contributors to deviant destroyers. Typically guerrilla government is undetected as it is woven into the fabric of the everyday, often mundane, world of bureaucracy.

Rosemary O’Leary shows that 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. To illustrate these tensions and challenges, O’Leary presents three in-depth case studies and 21 mini case studies that showcase the range of guerrillas from an official at a regional EPA office to a doctor at a medical school to the director of planning in a county office. O’Leary’s fresh analysis, combined with great story-telling, underscores the importance of dissent and presents strategies for ways public servants can decide ethically to engage in guerrilla activity, while offering ways public managers can learn to tap into the potentially insightful, creative ideas and energy of dissenters in order to make constructive changes in the system.

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Preface

Prelude

Chapter One: Guerrilla What?

Chapter Two: Guerrilla Government in the Nevada Wetlands

First Interlude: More Stories of Guerrilla Government

Chapter Three: Guerrilla Government in EPA’s Seattle Regional Office

Second Interlude: More Stories of Guerrilla Government

Chapter Four: A Government Guerrilla Sues His Own Agency: Off-Road

Chapter Five: Managing Guerrilla Government: Ethical Crusaders or Insubordinate Renegades?

Postlude: Are There Lessons?

“The Ethics of Dissent is a lively, well-written book. It covers a range of literature and the cases provide an essential glimpse into the real workings of government. Combining extended cases with theoretical discussion makes for more interesting classes and connects theory and practice. Books, like O'Leary's, that connect the two are rare. The Ethics of Dissent will make visible contributions to public administration and public policy research and will also help students and practitioners better understand the churning flow of dissent and commitment to public interest just below the surface in our staid, grey world public administration.”

“Rosemary O'Leary's Ethics of Dissent is exquisitely written and provides one of the most compelling analyses and syntheses of the implications of guerrilla government to democracies. The book has exceptional pedagogical features and would be very suitable in a variety of courses in not only public administration, but public affairs and public policy as well.”

“This important book delves into an under-discussed topic – managers as guerrilla fighters – through right case studies. The author has a wonderful writing style that is very engaging and accessible. The cases, and the four conceptual frameworks that briefly frame each case, should lead to lively classroom discussions on workplace ethics, divisions between civil servants and appointed officials, and how managers do (and should) deal with internal policy and management conflicts. Professor O’Leary is highly respected; she is the perfect author for this book.”

"I used The Ethics of Dissent for a graduate seminar titled 'Administrative Ethics and Responsibility.' There was complete agreement among the students that O'Leary's book fostered great discussions, thoughtful reflections, and they utilized her cases to construct short reflection and analyses papers. To quote my students, 'The O' Leary book helped us to capture the "moment and the struggles the actors" encountered when faced with ethical issues, dilemmas, and paradoxes... we loved working with her insightful short book.' What else can I say?...except I too loved working with it."

Rosemary O'Leary is Distinguished Professor of Public Administration with additional appointments in political science and law, and Co-Director of the Program for the Analysis and Resolution of Conflict, at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. Her areas of expertise include Public Management, Environmental Policy, Dispute Resolution, and Law.

O'Leary is the author or editor of six books and more than 85 articles on public management and public policy, and has won over fifteen research and teaching awards. From 2003 to 2005, O’Leary was a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Return to Flight Task Group assembled in response to the Columbia space shuttle accident. In 2004, she also served as a member of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. O'Leary has worked as a consultant to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and the International City/County Management Association.

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