Agenda Setting, the “Third Wave,” and the Administrative State

Abstract

On the eve of a new millennium, the United States appears bent on diffusing the administrative state’s (Waldo) authority to address social problems throughout the public, market, and civic spheres. Ascendant presently in informing this “neoadministrative” state is a “downsizing, defunding, and devolution” (D³) agenda premised on behavioral, instrumental, and normative assumptions that are not so much wrong as seriously incomplete. This article argues that appropriately matching the metes and bounds of the neoadministrative state with the challenges posed by Third Wave transformations will elude the United States unless an alternative agenda is offered. This agenda must go beyond one-size-fits-all prescriptions, be better informed by empirically based research, and be culturally resonant with the values Lipset identifies as the “American Creed.” To this end, the rudiments of—and important questions posed by—a “reconnecting, reconceptualizing, and reengaging” (R³) agenda are offered, which may yet reframe debates over the neoadministrative state in the 21st century.