Canadian Public Administration In The 21st Century

The demands associated with good governance and good public management are at an all-time high. Yet the discipline of Canadian public administration is in flux, and the time is ripe for an open and frank analysis of its state and possibilities. Canadian Public Administration in the 21st Century brings together emerging voices in Canadian public adm

Numerous administrative reforms during the past several decades, referred to as the "New Public Management," have altered government in a number of fundamental ways. These changes have, in turn, produced the need for even greater change if the public sector is to be capable of governing efficiently and responsibly. The challenges now facing government are numerous, including the need to recruit capable and committed young public servants, adapt to new information technology, manage changing intergovernmental relations, and, perhaps most important, hold the reformed administrative structures accountable to both political demands and legal standards. Some countries have already initiated new rounds of reform while others are still attempting to understand and absorb the consequences of changes motivated by new public management ideas. In Governance in the twenty-first century international experts recognise both the difficulty of making predictions and the need to consider the future in order to prepare the public sector for new challenges. The authors' predictions and recommendations are anchored in a thorough understanding of contemporary public administration. They point out that not only have previous reforms made yet more change necessary and inevitable but that the purpose of these reforms is to attempt to return government to the position of respect and competence it enjoyed in the past. B. Guy Peters is Maurice Falk Professor of American Government, Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh. Donald J. Savoie holds the Clément-Cormier Chair in Economic Development at the Université de Moncton, where he also teaches public administration.

A study of how public service has changed in this new era of interconnectedness

"Thinking Government: Public Administration and Politics in Canada, fourth edition, is a comprehensive introduction to public administration and public sector management. This book places Canadian government and public administration within its political context and covers such important topics as the institutions of the federal government, financial and human resources management, and accountability and responsibility. Fully updated throughout, Thinking Government, fourth edition, is perfect for Canadian public administration courses."--

The leading text on Canadian Public Administration providing comprehensive coverage of the political, policy and management dimensions of public administration.

This volume continues the inquiry launched by the Royal Society of Canada's 1997 publication, "Can Canada Survive? Under What Terms and Conditions?", and pursued in the 1998 volume, "The Well-Being of Canada", and the 1999 volume "Survivability in the 21st Century" (all published by the University of Toronto Press). The present collection examines the challenges of governance in our new century. Eight papers, given by experts in their respective fields, call for an examination of the governance of organizations per se, whether one probes the crises in the experience of large corporations, in education, in health care, in science and technology systems, or in military affairs. This volume underlines the dramatic changes taking place in our time and stresses the urgent need for new thinking and the need to reform our governance mechanisms in order to keep pace with our changing world.

This text is appropriate for undergraduate university and college students in political science and public administration courses. This text examines not only the theoretical issues forming the field of public administration, but also the actual practice of public administration in Canada, so that students develop the ability to make connections between the theory and real-life cases and experiences.