A Genealogy of public service
NB This note reprises a theme first outlined in an op-ed in the English edition of Kathimerini in March 2024.
Interlocutors occasionally wish to know why we do what we do. Even more frequently, we are asked by Greek acquaintances what we mean by this phrase “public service,” which seems to the uninitiated to imply a task performed by a salaried employee in the public sector. Are we merely imperialists imposing a foreign culture on our unwitting hosts?
In point of fact, the doctrinal and institutional origins of gestures rendered by private citizens to others for the benefit of one’s community predate by more than two thousand years the establishment of a professional civil service. One finds allusions in classical texts to some form or another of “public service,” for instance in dramatic representations of philanthrōpia and in debates over who was fit to hold public office in the polis. An articulate dedication to serve was later at the core of Stoicism, particularly in its late Hellenistic and Roman iterations, which acted as a bridge between the thought and values of antiquity and those of more modern times. As the Roman author Seneca wrote, “We shall remain in active service right up to the very end of life, without ceasing to apply ourselves to the common good, to help the individual, and to give assistance with an aged hand even to our enemies." Of course, there are many instances of beneficence and charitable giving in early Christianity which point in a similar direction.
To be sure, an appreciation of service has long been embedded in American popular culture. Bearing in mind that the Latin servus was used to designate a slave or a servant, Americans have characteristically regarded the voluntary act of serving -- one’s God, one’s country, one’s fellow citizens, even one’s neighbors -- to be the highest sort of interpersonal activity one can undertake. This ideal came to North America along multiple parallel paths -- Puritan and evangelical piety and Jesuit pedagogy; classical republicanism and certain strands of social contract theory and Utilitarianism; a modern approach to fulfilling a military obligation; the rise of the public utility corporation and of concurrent philanthropic practices, both dedicated to the “general welfare;” a rationale for colonial empire. Whatever its source, the message has found fertile ground in the United States, where an ethos of service is indeed deeply rooted, where, as the scholar Lynn Stout once observed, “unselfish prosocial behavior is so omnipresent… that it often goes unnoticed.”
The French author Alexis de Tocqueville understood this already in the mid-nineteenth century. Tocqueville admired the Americans he met in his travels for what we would call their attachment to community service and their capacity to associate voluntarily in collective endeavors. “The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens,” he concluded. A century after Tocqueville penned Democracy in America, this moral standard of service would inspire the Greatest Generation to overcome the Great Depression and defeat the Axis Powers. It continues to be compelling for many immigrants who discover a special sense of American-ness through a calling to public service, both as vocation and as profession, despite resistance in certain corners to the growth of the public sector brought about by the New Deal.
The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations, “Whenever you have trouble getting up in the morning, remind yourself that you’ve been made by nature for the purpose of working with others.” Nearly two millennia later Michael Dukakis, the Greek-American Governor of Massachusetts who ran in 1988 for President of the United States, rallied his young supporters, “There is nothing you can do in this world more fulfilling and more satisfying than giving of yourself to others, and making a contribution to your community and your state or your nation and your fellow citizens…” Such dedication still resonates among a wide swath of Americans in the early twenty-first century, and arguably underpins a younger generation’s penchant for activism, albeit more fleetingly, alas! as the ideals of service and participation and engagement are in jeopardy of becoming a cottage industry commandeered by venal self-help self-helpers. Who among us has not felt of late as if they were bowling alone? Who has not cringed when an aloof Congressperson soullessly offers thanks to a member of the military or a senior public official for their service?
If the golden age of public service in the United States risks becoming a thing of the past, there are signs that we may be witnessing the advent of a new golden age right here in this country, where, fittingly, the notion advanced herein was first articulated, despite the specter of recurring anarchic violence and a perennial, if not systemic, lack of confidence in public authorities.
Who among the foreigners in the audience has not been the beneficiary of the extraordinary kindness and hospitality which have distinguished Hellenes since the time of Homer. Who has not witnessed first hand the proliferation of civil society organizations and citizen initiatives throughout Greece over the past few decades, and not taken away the unmistakable impression that a characteristically Hellenic ethos of service animates these undertakings. Moreover, one is convinced that there are pockets of innovation and entrepreneurial endeavor throughout the Greek public sector, although the most committed among those intent on reforming the system from within are at times constrained to do their best work beyond Greece's borders. Their resourcefulness may not yet be the norm, but it is worth celebrating nonetheless.
So it is that the big story at the center bearing the name of Governor and First Lady Dukakis is not our longevity or our adherence to an American model of serving one another. It is rather that among the most significant events we have organized are those in which we showcase inspiring new approaches to public service programming, where we share the many lessons we continue to learn from our local peers. As Governor Dukakis might have put it, is there any greater expression of philanthrōpia than listening carefully to one another?
Pictured: Dukakis Center senior intern Gordan Jordanov reporting to stakeholders at Thessaloniki City Hall on a project to welcome migrants, May 2019.
