ABSTRACT
Historically, and even now, many planning, public policy, and public health text books have advocated bureaucratic neutrality. When we discuss rational thought in public service, we are typically describing formal rationality based on German sociologist Max Weber understands of it. Formal rationality has yielded many public benefits; and both rationality and neutrality have value in public service work. The goal of bureaucratic neutrality became prominent as democracy emerged. Of course, the planning world made its own interpretations of evolving beliefs about the division of powers. In practice, the belief that the bureaucracy should be a separate fourth power ran through the Chicago model of planning and policymaking, which typified problem-solving guided by rational knowledge. In short, neutral rationality became intrinsic to professional work towards the public good. For Charles Taylor, the loss arose with a new and deeply problematic form of liberalism: the liberalism of neutrality, which was intrinsically enabled by neutral rationality in government.
