ABSTRACT
The multidisciplinary perspective can be a positive force, enabling a multiplicity of perspectives to be looked at simultaneously; not through a grand unifying theory, but through the recognition of difference. The aim of this chapter is to explore this concept through a discussion on political myth and the notion of ideological capital. The chapter suggests that the notion of competing myths is unhelpful to understanding ethical, political and administrative debates as they seek to overcome complexity with reductionism. At its essence, a myth of any kind is a form of story, a narrative, and of course political discourse has always been driven by storytelling: political parties create narratives around individual politicians. Political myths are manifestations of ideological positions, and therein lay their power. Unless the complexity and intersubjectivity of experiences are addressed, public administration is doomed to be at the mercy of myth rather than philosophy.
