This original work captures the heart, and enlarges the soul, of reform movements within the study of governance and bureaucracy. Author David John Farmer provides constitutive features of a new consciousness for democratic governance that will revolutionize the subject of public administration. To Kill the King sketches post-traditional consciousness in terms of three rejuvinating concepts--thinking as play, justice as seeking, and practice as art. In a series of critical essays on each of these concepts, the book describes a post-traditional consciousness of governance that can yield enormous improvement in the quality of life for each individual. To Kill the King will appeal to any professor (whether in the post-modernist camp or not) who wants to expose students to fresh challenges and new insights.