Justice for All: Promoting Social Equityin Public AdministrationEDITED BY NORMAN J. JOHNSON AND JAMES H. SAVARA

Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2011

At the turn of the millennium, the Na-tional Academy of Public Administra-tion found that, although social equityhad been the law of the land for somethirty-five years, the profession of publicadministration s t i l l did not have a goodhandle on its implementation. This led tothe creation of the academy's StandingPanel on Social Equity, whose more than250 practitioners and scholars have beenseeking to make social equity real at lastas a pillar of public administration. Thepanel's work informs this volume, whichthe editors introduce and then present inthree parts, "Context and Background,""Measuring Social Equity," and "Lead-ership, Outreach, and OrganizationalDevelopment."

In the first chapter of "Context andBackground," the editors review socialequity in American society, noting thathistorically there has been more empha-sis on liberty than on equality; "equalprotection" was only explicitly addedto the Constitution in the FourteenthAmendment. While they conclude witha more inclusive definition of social eq-

uity, they begin with the economicallymeasurable "relatively homogeneousdistribution of income that is producedin modern societies by the policies thatredistribute resources from the wealthyto Ihe poor in economies that providecompensation in a relatively uniformway" (p. 12). Yet, the United States ranks94 of 138 countries and is less equalthan all European countries (as well asCanada, Australia, and New Zealand)(p. 12), and this steadily increased overthose thirty-five years. The editors citeinstitutional as well as cultural explana-tions for the international discrepancies.Countries with parliamentary systemsand proportional representation are muchmore inclined to adopt redistributivepolicies, as are those with less ethnicdiversity. Then, too, while other peoplerecognize structural reasons for unem-ployment, Americans (at least three offive) believe that the poor are just lazyand not taking advantage of all the op-portunities out there.

In Chapter 2, Sallyanne Payton of-fers a trenchant analysis of America's

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history of inequity. Slavery was notthe problem, it was "black people,"she rightly contends. For when slaveryended, policymakers did everythingthey could to keep blacks from attainingindependence, property ownership, andeducation. Like segregation elsewhere,zoning kept black professionals confinedto black neighborhoods, so that therewas little chance of a significant blackmiddle class emerging. But even whenAfrican Americans were able to prosperin their own communities, if they did toowell that incited resentment within thesurrounding while community; this ledto such excesses as the murderous 192!destruction of "Black Wall Street" inTulsa, as Barbara Robles aptly recountsin Chapter 3.

The "othering" of people—whetherby ethnicity, religion, or gender—is,alas, universal, as Terry Buss and UsamaAhmed next show in looking at social eq-uity in developing countries. Othering re-duces social capital and thus also reduceseconomic growth. Insofar as administra-tors acquiesce to such policies, they failin their fiduciary duty to the community.The United Slates, for example, permitstoo much urban inequality, as EdwardGlaeser. Matihew Resseger, and KristinaTobio document in Chapter 5. They notethat urban inequality is less a mailer oflow income levels—important as thoseare—than of the number of very richAmericans. Trying to solve the inequal-ity problem by redistribulion at the cityor even the metropolitan-area level,they contend, will backfire because thewealthy wil l move out of the givenjurisdiction's reach. Glaeser, Resseger,and Tobio have read Tiebout (1956) butnot Orfield (1997), who demonstratedthai lax-base sharing can enhance equityacross a metropolitan area (at least ina low-diversity stale like Minnesota).But their recommendation to invest inincreasing high school graduation rates.

instead of worrying about college, isdead on.

Moving to the workplace, Samuel L.Myers Jr. says that, after equal oppor-tunity and affirmative action, today it isdiversity—inclusiveness on efficiencygrounds. Businesses claim they want aworkforce that reflects their consumerbase, Myers observes, citing a studywhich concluded that students exposedto higher degrees of ethnic diversityshowed more active thinking, as well asgrowth in intellectual engagement andmotivation. On the other hand, there ismuch research that documents an inverserelationship between diversity and socialcapital—which is to say. there is substan-lially less social capital in Texas than inMinnesota. More research is needed.

Part II, "Measuring Social Equity,"begins with Richard Hug's examinationof the all-too-neglected social determi-nants of health. Of these, the single moslsalient one is residential segregation:Living in a poor neighborhood guaran-tees less access (o education, hence em-ployment, making it only half as likelyfor the residents to get patient-centeredcare. As former surgeon general DavidSatcher and his colleagues found in2000, there is a huge age-specific mor-tality discrepancy— 1,472 blacks die forevery 1,000 whites. This and many olheraccounts make it palpable that, to adapta familiar phrase, simply "living whileblack" is fatally stressful in a segregaiedsociety.

James Brunei poinls oul in Chapter8 that "driving while black" makesblacks three times as likely as whitesto be physically searched or have theirvehicle searched during a traffic stop.Worse yet, young black males wereseven limes more likely to be imprisonedin 2004 than whiles. Imprisonment ismore likely because of less education,as Leanna Stiefel. Amy Ellen Schwariz,and Ingrid Gould Ellen attest in Chapter

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9. Blacks' lower test scores are directlyrelated to lower income. Since there isnot much that can be done in the schools,they rightly recommend preschool andeven infant-parent education. The sameneighborhood theme is sounded in Chap-ter 10, "Environmental Justice and LandUse Planning," where Sylvester Murrayand Mark Hertgo document once againthat "race was the most significant fac-tor nationwide in the siting of hazardouswaste facilities" (p. 194).

Part III, "Leadership, Outreach, andOrganizational Development," beginswith a chapter by Kristen Norman-Majorand Blue Wooldridge on "refraining thedebate" by making the economic casefor social equity, since what is sociallyequitable is often economically efficient.Children who get a poor education, theynote, will have lower earnings and poorerhealth, a cost estimated at $500 billion ayear in lost goods and services. Econo-mists who know the educational findingscited above have calculated that a returnon investment of 9 percent to 17 percentcould be obtained by investing in earlychildhood development.

In Chapter 12 Susan Gooden docu-ments the necessity of assessing agencyperformance. In the Wisconsin Worksprogram, blacks were sanctioned at twicethe rate of whites, which led to scrutinyby the American Civil Liberties Unionand the National Association for the Ad-vancement of Colored People. Gooden'spoint is that agencies should be wil l ingto scrutinize themselves; this one was,atypically, willing to take that on andwas successful because the leadershipwas behind it and those doing it wererespected. In the next chapter, Goodenand Wooldridge urge that social equitybe integrated into core human resourcesmanagement courses. It certainly hasa special place in human resourcesbecause of its "front and center" rolein equal employment opportunity and

affirmative action, but, they argue, itshould permeate the whole curriculum.Texts do not discuss sufficiently why, inpractice, pretty much the same peoplekeep getting hired. Employers see doingmore as a luxury.

In the final chapter, the editors sumup the preceding discussions and thenrecommend "Steps to Take." They em-phasize here that public administratorsshould speak truth to power and pro-vide moral leadership; work to mitigateunfair policy consequences and makesure goods and services are consistentlyprovided; ensure equal access and op-portunity, treatment and protection, anddue process; make sure things are ap-propriately analyzed and appropriatelymeasured; make sure that all people arerepresented; and build partnerships withother organizations and the community.

In connection with the last step, toomany st i l l assume that lower-incomeor minority people cannot speak forthemselves. If we are going to have realdemocracy, though, we are going to haveto credit people with greater competence(this is the "agency" as opposed to "char-ity" approach that Buss and Ahmedstressed above). To "enact" social equity,we must, first, treat all individuals thesame, while understanding that groupdifferences are important to how wellindividuals do in society. Additionally,we should promote more active partici-pation and self-determination. Just dis-seminating information is not enough; tobe able to communicate with all, we needcompetence in the cultures of others.

Justice for AH does not provide muchthat is new or surprising, but it does agood job on the historical backgroundof persisting inequity and how that rac-ist heritage affects the contemporarycontext. More important, it shows us thatwe can indeed measure inequities and,therefore, find ways to diminish them(what gets measured gets done, as they

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rightly repeat). Finally, it exemplifieswhat can, in fact, be done in practice andthat everyone can benefit, economicallyand socially, if equity is enhanced.

How is this about "ethics"? Ethics isnot just about not using a public agency'sequipment and employees for privatebenefit. Ethics, in the greater Aristoteliansense, is for a person to "flourish" inlife, to be able to engage in "the pursuitof happiness" that Jefferson declaredall Americans have an "equal right" to.Since recent research has documentedthat there is a direct correlation betweenhappiness and ethical behavior, it is allthe more the responsibility of govern-ment officials in a democracy lo ensurethat all individuals can flourish equally.This is done by "promoting social eq-uity," as the subtitle here has it, and ilshould be done in an active way thatempowers all individuals to full agency.As this book shows, we are clearly not

up to such lofty labors every day, but todo public administration at all, one hasto persist with optimism.

—Ulf ZimmermanKennesaw State University

REFERENCES

James, Harvey S., Jr. 2011. "Is the JustMan a Happy Man? An EmpiricalStudy of the Relationship BetweenEthics and Subjective Weil-Being."Kyklos: International Review forSocial Sciences 64, no. 2 (May): 193-212.

Orfield, Myron. 1997. Meiropolitics: ARegional Agenda for Community Sta-bility. Washington. D.C.: BrookingsInsti tution Press: Cambridge, Mass.:Lincoln Insti tute of Land Policy.

Tiebout, Charles. 1956. ."A Pure Theoryof Local Expenditures." Journalof Political Economy 64 (Octo-ber)^ 16-424.

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