Alternative responses to the Orange County bankruptcy: An inquiry into the images underlying theory

The bankruptcy of the government of Orange County, California in 1994 is treated as a case study depicting a potentially critical problem emerging for democracies. The analysis links financial and fiduciary perspectives by re-examining the actions of Orange County officials and citizens through three separate analytical frames: the dynamics of economic globalization; citizen engagement through the channel of civil society; and the theory of risk---both its nature generally and its financial aspect specifically. The conclusion reached is that globalization has made contingency and uncertainty ubiquitous and this indicates that the practice of governance in its public administration dimension should include a return to pragmatic, process approaches to policy and implementation.