In this provocative and timely work, Louis C. Gawthrop (winner of the APSA's 1998 John Gaus Award for lifetime achievement in political science and public administration) argues eloquently for recognition of the ethical-moral values that pervade democracy. He focuses on the linkage of these values with the current vogue for reinventing government and purifying public service.
Ranging from New Deal photographers to Moses, from ancient philosophers to George Washington to the Challenger disaster, Gawthrop explores the notion of public service and what it means in our system of government to serve in the spirit of democracy.