Ford School hosts book talk with author Dan Honig

On Monday afternoon, about 35 people gathered in the Annenberg Auditorium in Weill Hall to hear Public Policy professor Don Moynihan and author Dan Honig, an associate professor at Georgetown University and University College London. Moynihan and Honig discussed Honig’s book “Mission Driven Bureaucrats: Empowering Bureaucrats to do Better,” which argues that governments can be improved through managerial strategies that empower bureaucrats.

Honig began his talk by addressing the need to change the working conditions in the public sector in order to create a more effective bureaucracy. 

“If we want mission driven bureaucrats, if we want those folks to be in front of us in times of crisis, we need to build a managerial environment that lets them feel like they can do good things because only then will they be there,” Honig said. “We can’t respond to the crisis by going and looking for them. We need to make it the case that they feel that they can thrive in the environment, in the normal managerial space and the normal work permit.”

Honig also discussed President Donald Trump’s administration and said the topic of bureaucracy was becoming taboo. 

“From my perspective, if you look at the language that they use when talking about the public sector and public employees, and when they use the term bureaucrats, it’s usually prefaced by ‘unelected’ or ‘rogue,’ Honig said. “There it is: A language of distrust which is embedded in a world view that assumes or takes for granted the idea that anyone who was not elected is somehow illegitimately using public power in a way that’s at odds with the interests of the public, and I think that is mostly incorrect.”

In an interview with The Daily, Public Policy graduate student Harrison DeChant said he sees a stark difference between Honig’s and Trump’s views of bureaucracy.

“I think there’s sort of been a difference in rhetoric used to describe cleaning of bureaucracy or an end to inefficiencies and ineffective or corrupt bureaucrats from the Trump administration,” DeChant said. “I think Honig takes a more optimistic tone towards empowering existing public servants and that there are more likable bureaucrats out there than you may think.” 

In an interview with The Daily at the end of the talk, Public Policy graduate student Nicholas DeChant said he left feeling empowered. 

“Decision making is a muscle,” DeChant said.  “And empowering bureaucrats allows us to flex that muscle and also be responsive to our locality or citizens needs as we see them from our understanding and our education, our skills, but, of course, that’s as long as we are responsive. That means we have to listen most so that empowerment allows us to listen better and then make decisions that reflect them.”

In an interview with The Daily, Public Policy graduate student Ethan Toro said he was very excited about the talk, given the relevance of bureaucracy and the current political climate.

“I think this topic is very relevant to what’s going on today in the federal government when it comes to empowering bureaucrats,” Toro said. “So I think it’s important to kind of see a different perspective and an expert’s analysis on how governments can empower public service.”

Daily Staff Reporter Kayla Lugo can be reached at klugo@umich.edu.

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