Democracy and government public relations: Expanding the scope of “Relationship” in public relations research

• A theoretical discussion of democracy, the Constitution, and government public relations is presented.
• President Clinton's apology to Tuskegee survivors is used as a case and is examined.
• General principles of relationship management are not adequate to account for repairing certain damaged relationships.
• Trying to establish a relationship with publics that don’t want one is undemocratic.
• Relationship management frameworks should be expanded to account for publics that might be deemed as “nonvoluntary publics”.

The author argues that the unique nature of the US government poses significant barriers to democratic governmental public relations practiced in and by the US. By exploring challenges in relationship management that surface while analyzing a particular instance of government public relations, the author posits that relationship management research should take into account publics’ (non)desire for a relationship as well as different types of organization–public relationships (OPRs) including government–public relationships. The author analyzes the US Government's official apology, administered by President Clinton, to Tuskegee study survivors, introduces the communicative conception of distance to PR to broaden relationship management frameworks, and argues for broader understanding of what constitutes democratic public relations.