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)