Beyond Public Administration

How can public administration (P.A.) nudge government to govern fundamentally better in terms of policy? How critical is P.A. contemplation and nudges – prods, shoves or hammer blows - to government-in-context? In this book, David John Farmer argues that government-in-context refers to government-in-totality, to what governs even if not called government and to what constrains government action. Constricting contextual features are infiltration, exfiltration and post-truth, raising questions relating to democracy. Infiltration into government is the action of gaining access that benefits big corporations, their owners and billionaires; findings are that it also mal-nudges government action through such elements as big money, lobbying, tax breaks and embrace of the free market. Reacting to factors like growing income inequality, what is explained as exfiltration occurs for middle- and lower-income people. Post-truth is noted as the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year for 2016, describing people concerned less with truths than with opinions. The book analyzes three practical "hammer blow" and 18 "shove" nudges to contradict the mal-nudges. Beyond Public Administration will be of interest to P.A. scholars and graduate students, more specifically those interested in critical, normative, or interpretive scholarship focused on various aspects of P.A. theory, governance, and practical management.

Swiss citizens approve of their government and the way democracy is practiced; they trust the authorities and are satisfied with the range of services Swiss governments provide. This is quite unusual when compared to other countries. This open access book provides insight into the organization and the functioning of the Swiss state. It claims that, beyond politics, institutions and public administration, there are other factors which make a country successful. The authors argue that Switzerland is an interesting case, from a theoretical, scientific and a more practice-oriented perspective. While confronted with the same challenges as other countries, Switzerland offers different solutions, some of which work astonishingly well.

Successful change in the public sector can be supported or hindered by political and administrative leadership, individual and group motivation, and the public’s perception of the effectiveness of public officials and government structures. But do the very characteristics of public sector organizations present obstacles to successful transformative change? This book assesses the current state of the literature on leadership and change in government and public policy, and introduces the reader to innovative new ways to demonstrate leadership in times of change. Contributions from accomplished scholars in the field cover the traditional public administration areas of performance and management, as well as the diversity of issues that surround public leadership and change, both domestic and global. Chapters on public sector innovation, performance leadership, governance networks, complexity in disaster management, change initiatives in educational systems and local government, citizen advisory bodies, and gender and race equality, to name but a few, provide important case studies throughout the volume. Leadership and Change in Public Sector Organizations will be required reading for upper level undergraduate and graduate courses in public administration/management, leadership, and public policy analysis.

This text brings together a number of specialists who examine the range of ideas and concepts of the new models of reform, paying particular attention to the "new public management" model and to strategies of good governance. It evaluates progress made by governments and aid donors in putting these ideas into practice. Using case studies from both the developed and developing world, it emphasizes the extent to which public management and governance reforms are being applied throughout the international arena. The examples used focus on the problems of policy and institutional transfers between the industrialized world and developing countries. Multidisciplinary in its approach, it draws on literature and research from management studies, political science, sociology, economics and devolopment studies, and points to issues likely to dominate research agenda.

Political discourse in much of the world remains mired in simplistic ideological dichotomies of market fundamentalism for efficiency versus substantial socialism for equity. Contemporary public policy design is far more sophisticated. It blends market, government and community tools to simultaneously achieve both equity and efficiency. Unlike in the twentieth century, this design is increasingly grounded in a deep evidence base derived by way of rigorous empirical techniques. A new paradigm is emerging: hybrid policies. This volume provides a thorough introduction to this technical side of public policy analysis and development. It demonstrates that it is possible to go beyond ideology, and find there some powerful answers to our most pressing problems. An international team of experts, many of whom have experience with the design or implementation of hybrid policies, helps cover the behavioural, institutional and regulatory theories that inform the choice of policy objectives and lead the initial conception of solutions. They explain the reasons why we need evidence-based public policy and the state-of-the-art empirical techniques involved in its development. And they analyse a range of in-depth case studies from industrial relations to health care to illustrate how hybrids can intermingle the strengths of governments, markets and the community to combat the weaknesses of each and arrive at bipartisan outcomes. Hybrid Public Policy Innovations is geared to scholars and practitioners of public policy administration and management who desire to understand the analytical reasons why policies are designed the way they are, and the purpose of evidence-gathering frameworks attached to policies at implementation.

This volume addresses the relationship of citizenship and public management in Europe. After 15 years of state reform, it is time for an overall discussion of the theoretical and empirical impact and limits of New Public Management, as one of the latest reorientations in public administration, on the practice of citizenship. It points out the tension between a focus on improvement of state bureaucracies, on the one hand, and the involvement of citizens in the co-production of policies on the other. It also points to a fundamental change that is taking place: the imortance of state apparatuses for the development and sustainability of viable societies is being de-emphasized and special attention to "governance" is now taking over the central place, that for so long has been occupied by attention to "government". Through the eco-production of public policies by citizens and public authorities working together, a new civil society is emerging. The book highlights the fact that the re-invention of the citizen is of crucial importance to public administration practice, as well as to the various public administration disciplines in Europe.

Beyond Government examines how vigorous and truly pluralistic policy debate has evolved in both mature and emerging democracies and then suggests how it may be encouraged from within and sustained by outside assistance. The contributors argue that a strong democracy thrives on a rich population of organizations and individuals that respond to the issues of the moment, the concerns of groups within society that wish to be heard, and the styles of interaction that seem most appropriate at any given time. The volume has five parts. In the first, three U.S.-based authors present models of public debate from the American experience. In the second part, four authors-two from Latin America and two from Eastern Europe-chronicle and analyze the public debate that accompanied their countries' transitions to democracy. The third section includes chapters on specific areas of policy research, the fourth shifts attention to the institutions that foster debate, and the fifth assesses contributions to public debate from abroad by foundations and the corporate sector. A concluding section looks ahead to challenges and opportunities.