The Legal Foundations Of Public Administration

The third edition of this highly respected textbook introduces students of public administration to the practical issues of administrative law. While useful to law school students, it is most relevant to public management students. The presentation provides a concise foundation to the history and theory of administrative law, rule making, and judicial decisions. The most important issues in administrative law are included--meaningful issues for present and future administrators. A larger number of recent cases and other up-to-date information will be found in the book in order to make the student aware of the kinds of legal problems likely to be encountered in public agencies. One or two cases illustrate each problem at hand, rather than discussing numerous arcane court decisions and technicalities of legal procedure, in order to sketch the broad contours of the present law.

Designed to serve as a basic text for introductory courses in public administration, this pioneering work provides students with a clear-eyed understanding of the vital management functions covered in most standard textbooks with two important differences. First, it is written to address the needs of both the experienced practitioner and the entry-level public servant. Case examples bridge the content-rich environment of practitioners with the principles of public administration sought by pre-service students. Second, the discussion of management practices is grounded in the political and ethical tensions inherent in the American constitutional form of governance. This innovative approach reflects the authors' belief that public administration operates as an integral part of the country's political traditions, and thereby helps define the political culture. Key themes in this third edition include: • an emphasis on the ways in which public administration and their agents play a critical role in ensuring legal and political accountability of the political system; • an exploration of local public administration as the backstop of American democracy, requiring a close working partnership between part-time elected officials and career administrators; • careful examination of the ways in which the American political economy requires administrators who are skilled at co-producing the common good with voluntary associations, businesses, nonprofit organizations and other governmental entities; • an understanding that public administration plays a critical role with its prudential judgments in balancing the competing values necessary to secure a regime of ordered liberty. Every chapter has been thoroughly updated, with particular attention paid to chapters on budgeting and revenue, e-government and the digital divide, shared power and the rise of "wicked problems," and the future of public administration in the United States amidst deep polarization. Foundations of Public Service, 3rd Edition provides a framework for understanding American political traditions and how they inform public administration as a political practice. It is required reading for all introductory Public Administration courses with an emphasis on practice and real-world applications.

In the course of the last century, fundamental changes occurred in the relationship between public administration and politics. This book describes in which ways and to what extent the public administration discipline aims to shape this fundamental relation by analyzing the paradigmatic foundations of the discipline. The various paradigms adopted by different groups in the public administration discipline at different points in time determine for a large part the nature of problems to be tackled and the solution procedures that may be considered. Therefore, as discussed in the book, a clear insight into the foundations underlying the relationship between public administration and politics not only facilitates the study of the public administration discipline and political science, but also contributes to a better understanding of the practice of public administration.Contents include: paradigms in public administration * public administration as a submissive instrument of politics * public administration as an 'out-sourceable' policy production system * the demand and supply paradigm of public administration * the modernist paradigm: public administration as scientification of politics * public administration in a multi-rational perspective: a postmodern paradigm.

Public Administration and Law has been edited for use as a supplement for an undergraduate or MPA level course on administrative law. The selections, all from the pages of Public Administration Review, have been chosen to enlighten and enliven the contents of any standard administrative law textbook. Each of the book's main sections begins with introductory text and discussion questions by the volume editors, Julia Beckett and Heidi Koenig, followed by relevant readings from PAR. The book's contents follow the standard pattern established by the field's major textbooks to facilitate the instructor's ability to assign readings that illuminate lectures and text material. The book concludes with two invaluable resources - a bibliography of 65 years of PAR articles concerning public law, plus a bibliography of law-related articles appearing in other journals published by ASPA.