Public Administration In Transition

Public administration has changed radically over the last 30 years in organizational forms, role perceptions, practice, and the relevant research questions. Skillfully mastered public administration makes a difference in resolving conflicts, providing predictability, ensuring rights, and coping with problems of inclusiveness. This festchrift provides necessary information about public administration theory and practice, adding critical value to theoretical and methodological knowledge. The book demonstrates how a transformed public administration in practice makes a difference. It shows - through examination from various angles - how previous understandings of public administration have become obsolete. These changes are analyzed with a specific focus on four major research themes: (1) post-modern public administration, (2) neo-institutionalism, (3) fragmented local governance, and (4) method and methodology. The future prospects of public administration seem most promising if administrators are able to create ongoing dialogue with many parties. The book includes intriguing cases from the US and several European countries in order to illustrate how the theoretical and methodological approaches work in practice.

Global developments over the past half-century have transformed public administration and brought it to maturity as an autonomous discipline at the intersection of many important fields of study. The trends and challenges which confront this discipline are analyzed in this festschrift, which honors Gerald E. Caiden and his numerous inputs to the field since his graduation in 1957. During five decades of research and teaching, Dr. Caiden's professional life has spread across four continents, contributing greatly to the development of scholars and professional practitioners throughout the world. Their advancement of our knowledge of the public sphere worldwide and support of enhanced practices, combined with Caiden's scholarship, continue to define vital aspects of contemporary public administration and its future prospects, both locally and globally. The administrative state, which peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, gave way to neoliberalism and the new public management during the 1980s and 1990s. Already this is changing, as new ideas and visions surface on the horizon. Likewise, priorities shifted, as this volume shows. Concerns with central planning, with control, command and direction, gave way to greater emphasis on decentralization, de-bureaucratization, and human resources development but also, lately, ethics and anti-corruption strategies. Due process, rule of law, defense against arbitrariness, and protection and promotion of human and citizens' rights have also re-emerged as fields of growing concern, precisely on account of government's visible deficit in these regards. We are constantly on the move, but whether our direction will lead to the 'garrison state' or to a democratic 'facilitative state', as one contributor argues, remains a central issue, which calls for exploration and debate. In paying Gerald Caiden the tribute he so richly deserves, this festschrift, put together by scholars from around the world, traces and accounts for developments and bring us up-to-date. It is a fifty-year perspective on a field in rapid change, a rich and varied compendium, which represents a valuable addition to the literature on public administration, a necessary tool for training and research, as well as a useful companion for students and practitioners of public service globally.

Canadian public administration has provided a rich ground for examining the changing nature of the state. Currents of political change have rippled through the administration of the public sector, often producing significant alterations in our understanding of how best to organize and administer public services. This volume brings together some of the leading Canadian and international scholars of public administration to reflect on these changes and their significance. Providing a historical perspective on public administration in Canada, the volume examines the shift from a traditional model of administration to newer forms such as new public management and governance, and explores current debates and the place of Canadian public administration within a broader comparative perspective.

This Brief provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of proactive strategies for management transitions in criminal justice and other public administration civic service agencies. These organizations have a unique need for managing transitions effectively. Compared to private organizations: they have a relatively high frequency of management transitions due to the terms of elected and appointed officials, and these new managers more often come from outside the organization. Through an mixed-methods study of criminal justice command level staff in New York state, researchers found a number of key components to successful transitions. Based on their study, the researchers prepared a set of guidelines called the Command Transition Matrix. This tool is aimed at police and public administration leadership. The methodology used to develop it will be of interest to researchers in Criminal Justice Administration, Public Policy, and Management Science.

"This report analyses the nature of these reforms, their rationale and design as well as issues of implementation and evaluation"--Back cover.

This book looks at experience in government restructuring and devolution from a variety of national and international perspectives, both within the European Union and elsewhere, focusing on lessons learned and ways forward.Since the 1980s, there has been a global trend to give more power to local governments. Even in Korea and the United Kingdom, the most centralised countries in the OECD, local government powers have increased, with substantial economic benefits. Within the European Union, the principle of subsidiarity has enshrined the idea of devolution. New member states, particularly in central and eastern Europe, have significantly created new and self-sufficient local and regional governments. However, this process has been complicated. Devolution is not a panacea in its own right, and need not lead to economic growth. While it can encourage savings through collaboration, it can also lead to confused lines of authority and can complicate policy formation and implantation. Devolution can strain local budgets, forcing local governments to rely on their own sources of finance, rather than central government transfers. Suburbanisation, rural depopulation, the growth of some regions, and the decline of others have raised new problems, particularly related to inter-governmental cooperation among local governments and different levels of government. In many cases, an increased number of governments has increased administrative costs.