Columns on the Current Crisis in Public Administration

Erik Devereux is a columnist for the online edition of the PA Times, a publication of the American Society for Public Administration.

Erik has authored a series of eight columns in the PA Times that uses the metaphor of plate tectonics to investigate the causes of the "earthquake" in American public administration that occurred after January 20, 2025. The series began in May 2025 and concluded in December 2025. 

Here are links to the eight columns in the series:

• "Part 1 - Metaphors that Matter" (5/23/2025)
• "Part 2 - Economics Matters" (6/27/2025)
• "Part 3 - The Arc of Empire" (7/25/2025)
• "Part 4 - Aging Infrastructure" (8/22/2025)
• "Part 5 - Demographics Are Destiny" (9/26/2025)
• "Part 6 - Excuse Me, America, but Your Contradictions Are Showing" (10/24/2025)
• "Part 7 - We Have Met the Enemy and It Is Us" (11/14/2025)
• "Part 8 - Rebuilding a House Divided at the Foundation" (12/12/2025)

Columns on Complementarity in Theories of Public Administration

 Erik Devereux is a columnist for the online edition of the PA Times, a publication of the American Society for Public Administration.

Erik has authored a series of columns in the PA Times that applies the concept of complementarity in quantum physics to theories of public administration. Despite the arcane topic, the series has immediate application to the current efforts to remake the federal bureaucracy. The series began in November 2024 and concluded in April of 2025. 

Here are links to the six columns in the series:

• "Part 1 - Can There Be a Theory of Everything?" (11/8/2024)
• "Part 2 - Take Your Burdens to the State and Leave Them There" (11/22/2024)
• "Part 3 - Perusing the Periodic Table of Public Personnel" (1/24/2025)
• "Part 4 - When Pursuing the Public Interest Requires Avoiding the Public" (2/28/2025)
• "Part 5 - Revisiting Professor Lowi's Complaint" (3/28/2025)
• "Part 6 - Reconciling ASPA in the Public Interest" (4/25/2025)

Columns on the Tragedy of Tobacco and the State

Erik Devereux is a columnist for the online edition of the PA Times, a publication of the American Society for Public Administration.

Erik has authored a series of columns in the PA Times reflecting on the inability of democratic governments to protect public health from the terrible consequences of nicotine addiction. The series began in April 2024 and concluded in October 2024. 

Here are links to the six columns in the series:

• "Part 1 - Genesis of a Health Catastrophe" (4/26/2024)
• "Part 2 - Normalization of a Toxic Addiction" (5/24/2024)
• "Part 3 - How Cancer Became Good News" (6/28/2024)
• "Part 4 - Addicted to Taxes" (7/26/2024)
• "Part 5 - Hey Kids, Let Me Addict You" (8/23/2024)
• "Part 6 - What Then Must Be Done" (9/27/2024)

Columns on the Epidemic of Academic Fraud in the Social Sciences

 Erik Devereux is a columnist for the online edition of the PA Times, a publication of the American Society for Public Administration.

Erik authored a six-part series on the epidemic of academic fraud and dishonesty in the social sciences that is impacting the field of public administration and public policy. The series began in October 2023 and concluded in March 2024.

Here are links to his columns:

• "Part 1: Symptoms of a Cataclysm" (10/27/2023)
• "Part 2: The Collapse of the Academic Career" (11/20/2023)
• "Part 3: The Subversion of Peer Review" (12/18/2023)
• "Part 4: Reforming Doctoral Education" (1/26/2024)
• "Part 5: Restoring the Sanctity of Basic Research" (2/23/2024)
• "Part 6: Rewarding the Content Creators" (3/22/2024)

Columns on Punishing Corporations that Commit Child Abuse and Neglect

Erik Devereux is a columnist for the online edition of the PA Times, a publication of the American Society for Public Administration.

Erik authored a six-part series on punishing corporations (rather than people) for committing child abuse and neglect. This series argues that governments should give out the corporate death penalty in these cases, shutting down the organizations, seizing their assets, and compensating victims.

Here are links to his columns:

• "Part 1 - Confronting the Problem" (4/28/2023)
• "Part 2 - If Corporations Are 'People' Can We Deter Them from Evil?" (5/26/2023)
• "Part 3 - Reinforcing the Separation of Church and State" (6/22/2023)
• "Part 4 - A Tale of Two Movies" (7/28/2023)
• "Part 5 - Like Slavery and Prostitution, Child Labor Never Goes Out of Style" (8/25/2023)
• "Part 6 - Protecting Children on the Public Stage" (9/29/2023)

 

Columns on Fixing the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex

Erik Devereux is a columnist for the online edition of the PA Times, a publication of the American Society for Public Administration.

Erik has taught the course, "Nuclear Weapons Technology," in the Georgetown University Security Studies Program since the spring of 2018. A "radical pragmatist" by trade as a scientist, Erik supports fixing the Nuclear Weapons Complex out of recognition that the creation of nuclear weapons shut down the Great Powers wars that would have decimated billions of lives if allowed to occur after World War Two. As it stands, the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex is suffering from decades of deferred maintenance, mission drift, and loss of capacity. The result may be the first nuclear power to disarm through incompetence brought about by the overall, unwarranted attacks on the federal government that have characterized American politics since 1980.

Here are links to his columns:

• "Part 1 - Unintended Consequences of Decades of Federal Government Budget Failures" (5/20/2022)
• "Part 2 - Making Peace with Nuclear Weapons" (6/17/2022)
• "Part 3 - The Problem Starts with the Pits" (7/15/2022)
• "Part 4 - All Roads Lead to PANTEX" (8/19/2022)
• "Part 5 - Y-12 at a Crossroads" (9/16/2022)
• "Part 6 - The Savannah River Solution" (10/21/2022)

Columns about Responding to Climate Change

Erik Devereux is a columnist for the online edition of the PA Times, a publication of the American Society for Public Administration. 

Erik has published several columns related to the challenges posed by climate change including a four-part series that touches on many themes other experts now are exploring in much greater detail. Another series specifically discusses how the misplaced emphasis on recycling plastic is undermining efforts to address climate change.

Here are links to his columns:

• "It's Time for Project Earth" (10/11/2016)

Four-Part Series of Columns on a Pragmatic Approach to Climate Change

• "Part 1 - Choose a Fact-Based Strategy" (8/26/2021)
• "Part 2 - Solve the Governance Problem" (9/22/2021)
• "Part 3 - Demand Gross Carbon Reductions Every Year" (10/20/2021)
• "Part 4 - Invest in Rebuilding the Electricity Infrastructure" (12/19/2021)

Five-Part Series on Plastic Recycling vs Climate Change

• "Part 1 - A Road Paved with Good Intentions" (11/18/2022)
• "Part 2 - Worshiping False Idols" (12/16/2022)
• "Part 3 - The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" (1/23/2023)
• "Part 4 - Seduced by Greenwashing" (2/24/2023)
• "Part 5 - Pragmatic About Plastics" (3/24/2023)