Contents -- Preface -- Postmodern -- Acknowledgments -- Note -- 1 The Representative Democratic Accountability Feedback Loop -- Orthodoxy -- Positivism in Public Administration -- Deconstructing the Loop Model -- Notes -- 2 Alternatives to Orthodoxy -- Neoliberalism -- The Constitutionalist Alternative -- Communitarian/Citizen Alternative -- Phronesis -- Notes -- 3 Hyperreality -- Instability and Incommensurability -- Unstable Signs Leading to a Virtual Reality -- Neotribalism and the Decentered Self -- Symbolic Politics -- Hyperreality Versus the Alternatives -- 4 The Social Construction of Government -- Constructivist Social Theory -- Governmentality -- Note -- 5 Ideographic Discourse -- Symbols as Ordering Devices -- Ideography -- Relief from Dissonance -- Events, Impasses, and the Authority of the Archives -- Ideographic Events -- Notes -- 6 Conclusion -- Orthodoxy and Its Alternatives -- Media-Infused Hyperreality -- Constructivism and Governmentality -- A Field of Political Contestation -- The Changing Game -- Decoherence -- Implications -- Note -- References -- Name Index -- Subject Index -- About the Authors.