ABSTRACT
This chapter explores one of the central questions addressed by this book: Do career public servants have too little or too much discretion? To help readers answer this question, the chapter explores four core issues in this debate: (1) the ubiquity and need for discretion at various organizational levels; (2) the varieties of policy discretion and their implications; (3) the kinds of abuses resulting from discretion; and (4) leadership discretion in nonprofit organizations. The chapter concludes that administrative discretion is eradicable and even desirable at all levels of our public organizations. For that reason, it is incumbent on public servants to know how to make the exercise of their discretion both accountable and responsible to the core values of the American constitutional order, an issue we elaborate more fully in ensuing chapters.
