In keeping within the tight scope of the VSI standard, we limited our brief overview to some of the key highlights in the field and practice of public administration. It was not our intention to cover all of the topics, approaches, and concepts associated with this very broad and dynamic subject in this introductory narrative. Indeed, the field of public administration is awash with excellent handbooks, textbooks, monographs, and scholarly publications that cover specific topics and approaches with the full depth and breadth that they command. We have been greatly inspired by many of them in crafting this introductory narrative. In keeping with the general style of Oxford’s Very Short Introduction series, we have used direct quotations sparingly and most are referenced in the textboxes that appear throughout. Having gained a basic understanding of the topics discussed here, most readers will be sufficiently prepared to move on to more advanced books and articles.
There are a number of solid textbooks that survey the concepts, theories, and approaches of public administration. The following are particularly strong in this regard: Jay M. Shafritz and J. Steven Ott, Classics of Organization Theory, 8th edn (Harcourt, 2015); Jay M. Shafritz and Albert C. Hyde, Classics of Public Administration, 7th edn (Wadsworth, 2011); Janet Denhardt and Robert Denhardt, Public Administration: An Action Orientation, 6th edn (Wadsworth Publishing, 2008); J. Steven Ott and Edward W. Russell, Introduction to Public Administration: A Book of Readings (Longman, 2001); Christopher Hood, The Art of the State: Culture, Rhetoric and Public Management (Oxford University Press, 1998); George H. Frederickson, The Spirit of Public Administration (Jossey-Bass, 1996).
Classical sources on the origins and workings of government include: Frank Goodnow, Politics and Administration: A Study in Government (Classic Reprint) (Forgotten Books, 2012); Herbert Simon, Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization, 3rd edn (Free Press, 1976).
A seminal book on the public policy process is Daniel Mazmanian and Paul Sabatier, Implementation and Public Policy (University Press of America, 1989). For a very readable overview of the policy process, please see Stella Z. Theodoulou and Chris Kofinis, The Art of the Game: Understanding American Public Policy Making (Wadsworth, 2004).
Some important works on bureaucracy and public management include: James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy (Basic Books, 1989); Guy B. Peters, The Politics of Bureaucracy: An Introduction to Comparative Public Administration, 6th edn (Routledge, 2009); Laurence E. Lynn, Jr and Sydney Stein, Jr, Public Management: Old and New (Routledge, 2006); Allison Graham and Philip Zelikow, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, 2nd edn (Pearson, 1999); James Q. Wilson, What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It (Basic Books, 1991); William A. Niskanen, Jr, Bureaucracy and Representative Government (Aldine, 1971).
For a solid understanding of public administration systems from a global perspective, we recommend: Jos Raadschelders and Eran Vigoda-Gadot, Global Dimensions of Public Administration and Governance: A Comparative Voyage (John Wiley & Sons, 2015); J. A. Chandler, Comparative Public Administration (Routledge, 2014); Evan M. Berman, Public Administration in East Asia: Mainland China, Japan, South Korea (Taiwan CRC Press, 2010); Ali Farazmand, ‘State tradition and public administration in Iran in ancient and modern times’, in Ali Farazmand (ed.), Handbook of Comparative and Development Public Administration (Marcel Dekker, 1991); Georgije Ostrogorski, History of the Byzantine State (Rutgers University Press, 1969).
For an alternative take on pre-modern leadership in society, please see Christopher Boehm, Hierarchy in the Forest (Harvard University Press, 1999).
The quote from John T. Harvey was drawn from his essay ‘Why government should not be run like a business’ that appeared in the ‘Leadership’ section of Forbes (online), 5 October 2012: <http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/2012/10/05/government-vs-business/#db2541826858>.
The quote by Donald Kettl that appears in this chapter is drawn from The Worst Is Yet to Come: Lessons from September 11 and Hurricane Katrina (University of Pennsylvania, Fels Institute of Government: Research Service Report No. 05-01, 2005): <www.unm.edu/~marivera/…/Kettl--Katrina%20and%209-11.doc>.
The quote defining the term ‘governance’ is drawn from Laurence E. Lynn, Jr, Carolyn J. Heinrich, and Carolyn J. Hill, Improving Governance: A New Logic for Empirical Research (Georgetown University Press, 2001), p. 7.
The quote on leadership by Herbert S. Lewis was drawn from Leaders and Followers: Some Anthropological Perspectives, Addison Wesley Module in Anthropology, Philippines: Addison-Wesley Publishing, January 1, 1974, No. 50, p. 3.
Population projections for the city of Melbourne were drawn from John Dagge, ‘Melbourne struggling as population booms to more than five million by 2025 and 6.5 million by 2050’. Sunday Herald Sun. March 25, 2012 12:00AM. <http://zincip.biz/2012/03/28/melbourne-struggling-as-population-booms-to-more-than-five-million-by-2025-and-6-5-million-by-2050-2/>
There has been a long-running debate over whether Westphalia was the watershed that created a sovereign-state-system that definitively established the legal principles of territoriality, autonomy, and self-determination. We have provided the popular historical narrative in this chapter for the purpose of introducing new students of public adminstration to the concept of state sovereignty and related concepts. For a more in-depth discussion of this complex subject, we suggest Trudy Jacobsen and Charles Sampford, Re-envisioning Sovereignty: The End of Westphalia? (Ashgate Press, 2013); and Stephen D. Krasner, Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy (Princeton University Press, 1999).
As we noted in the text of this chapter, our discussion of the Jeffersonian, Hamiltonian, and Madisonian traditions is indebted to Donald Kettl, The Transformation of Governance: Public Administration for the Twenty-First Century (JHU Press, 2015).
For an in-depth historical account of popular sovereignty, we recommend: Larry Kramer, The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review (Oxford University Press, 2004); and Edmund S. Morgan, Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America (W. W. Norton & Company, 1989).
Our discussion of the Federalist Papers drew, in part, from: Alexander Hamilton, ‘Federalist 70’, in Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers (Dover Thrift Editions, Courier Corporation, 2014); James Madison, ‘Federalist 10’, in Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers (Dover Thrift Editions, Courier Corporation, 2014).
For additional background of the relationship between the Jeffersonian tradition and America’s Tea Party movement’s position on American ‘state’s rights’, please see David Sehat, The Jefferson Rule: How the Founding Fathers Became Infallible and Our Politics Inflexible (Simon and Schuster, 2015).
For a deeper understanding of the relationship between popular sovereignty and devolution, we suggest: Gerry Hassan, Independence of the Scottish Mind: Elite Narratives, Public Spaces and the Making of a Modern Nation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014); and Michael Gardiner, The Cultural Roots of British Devolution (Edinburgh University Press, 2004).
For Henry Adams’ remarks on Jefferson, please see his book History of the United States of America (Antiquarian Press Ltd. 1962) (1889–1891) supra note 3, at 204.
For additional perspectives on progressivism, we suggest: Ronald J. Pestritto and William J. Atto, American Progressivism: A Reader (Lexington Books, 2008); Eldon Eisenach, Social and Political Thought of American Progressivism (Hackett Publishing Company, 2006); Woodrow Wilson, ‘The Study of Administration’, Political Science Quarterly, 2 (1888), pp. 197–222.
Party politics and progressivism are addressed in: Glenn Hurowitz, Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party (Maisonneuve Press, 2007); Paul Waldman, Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Can Learn from Conservative Success (Wiley, 2006); Peter Berkowitz, Varieties of Progressivism in America (Hoover Institution Press, 2004).
Considerations regarding the future of democracy can be found in: David B. Woolner and John M. Thompson (eds), Progressivism in America: Past, Present, and Future (Oxford University Press, 2015); Bob Pepperman Taylor, Citizenship and Democratic Doubt: The Legacy of Progressive Thought (University Press of Kansas, 2004); Jeffrey C. Isaac, The Poverty of Progressivism: The Future of American Democracy in a Time of Liberal Decline (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003).
The quote by Peter Hennessy provided in this chapter was drawn from his Founder’s Day Address, Hawarden Castle, 8 July 1999, cited in the Civil Service Research Paper 03/49, House of Commons Library, May 2003.
Sources for Box 3 are: Ken Johnson, ‘According to Max Weber: historical principles’ in ‘Busting Bureaucracy’, 16 March 2016 <http://www.bustingbureaucracy.com/excerpts/weber.htm>; Stella Z. Theodoulou and Christopher Kofinis, The Art of the Game (Wadsworth, 2004).
For a readable overview of the ‘Four Main Administrative Traditions’, please see Guy Peter’s article that appears in the Public Sector Management and Governance section of the World Bank’s website that was submitted December 4, 2000. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPUBLICSECTORANDGOVERNANCE/0,,contentMDK:20134002~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:286305,00.html
Comparative analyses of welfare states around the globe can be found in: Rögnvaldur Hannesson, Debt, Democracy and the Welfare State: Are Modern Democracies Living on Borrowed Time and Money? (Palgrave Pivot, 2015); and Eric S. Einhorn and John Logue, Modern Welfare States: Scandinavian Politics and Policy in the Global Age, 2nd edn (Praeger, 2003).
Contemporary reflections on the topic are addressed in: Christopher Pierson, Francis G. Castles, and Ingela K. Naumann (eds), The Welfare State Reader, 3rd edn (Polity, 2013); Jacob S. Hacker, The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
In this chapter, we also drew on insights from Stella Z. Theodoulou, Policy and Politics in Six Nations: A Comparative Perspective on Policy Making (Prentice Hall, 2002); and Ravi K. Roy and Arthur T. Denzau, Fiscal Policy Convergence from Reagan to Blair: The Left Veers Right (Routledge, 2004).
For economic perspectives on the modern welfare state, please consider: Molly C. Michelmore, Tax and Spend: The Welfare State, Tax Politics, and the Limits of American Liberalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011); Irwin Garfinkel, Lee Rainwater, and Tim Smeeding, Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard or Leader? (Oxford University Press, 2010); Neil Gilbert and Barbara Gilbert, The Enabling State: Modern Welfare Capitalism in America (Oxford University Press, 1989); Gosta Esping-Andersen, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (John Wiley & Sons, 2013); Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (reprint) (Routledge, 2013); Colin Hay and Daniel Wincott, The Political Economy of European Welfare Capitalism (21st Century Europe) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); Mark Blyth, Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2002); Bo Rothstein, The Social Democratic State: The Swedish Model and the Bureaucratic Problem of Social Reforms (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998); Gregory Luebbert, Liberalism, Fascism, or Social Democracy: Social Classes and the Political Origins of Regimes in Interwar Europe (Oxford University Press, 1991).
The quote describing the ‘golden age of capitalism’ by Robert B. Reich was drawn from the book Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Knopf, 2008), p. 17.
The quote defining the term POSDCORB by Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick was drawn directly from their Papers on the Science of Administration (Routledge Press, 2004), p. 14.
Our textbox on the Waldo–Simon debate focuses on the discussion over positivist, ‘hard science’-based, approaches and normative values-based approaches to the study and practice of public administration. For a more detailed and nuanced explanation of this discussion, as well as further analysis on other important topics that we did not cover, we invite the reader to see Michael M. Harmon’s article, ‘The Simon/Waldo Debate: A Review and Update’, Public Administration Quarterly, 12(1) (Winter 1989), pp. 437–51, as well as Mark R. Rutgers’ essay entitled ‘Theory and Scope of Public Administration: An Introduction to the Study’s Epistemology’, that appeared as part of the ‘Foundations of Public Administration’ series featured in a 2010 Public Administration Review article (retrieved from: <http://www.aspanet.org/public/aspadocs/par/fpa/fpa-theory-article.pdf>). We also suggest: Herbert Simon, ‘Reply to Waldo’, American Political Science Review, 2 (1952), pp. 494–6 and Dwight Waldo, ‘Reply to Simon’, American Political Science Review, 47 (1953), pp. 500–3.
Box 4 leans in part on insights derived from Michael M. Harmon’s article, ‘The Simon/Waldo Debate A Review And Update’, Public Administration Quarterly, 12.1 (Winter 1989), pp. 437–451.
Textbox 4 draws also from Dwight Waldo’s book The Administrative State (New York: Holmes and Meier, 2nd ed. 1948, 1984), p.171 and his article ‘Development Theory of Public Administration’, American Political Science Review, 46 (1952): 97.
Perspectives on the political-economic issues can be found in: Paul Posner, The Politics of Unfunded Mandates: Whither Federalism? (Georgetown University Press, 1998); Edward Gramlich, A Guide to Cost Benefit Analysis, 2nd edn (Prentice-Hall, 1997); David Osborne and Ted Gaebler, Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector (Plume, 1993).
Leadership aspects of public management are highlighted in: Janet Denhardt and Robert Denhardt, The New Public Service: Serving, Not Steering (Routledge, 2015); Rosemary O’Leary and Lisa Bingham (eds), The Collaborative Public Manager: New Ideas for the Twenty-first Century (Georgetown University Press, 2008); Jan-Erik Lane, New Public Management: An Introduction (Routledge, 2002).
For comparative analysis of public management in the United States and abroad, please consider: Siobhan O’Sullivan and Mark Considine, Contracting-out Welfare Services: Comparing National Policy Designs for Unemployment Assistance (John Wiley & Sons, 2015); Alison Griffith and Dorothy Smith, Under New Public Management: Institutional Ethnographies of Changing Front-Line Work (University of Toronto Press, 2014); Christopher Pollitt and Geert Bouckaert, Public Management Reform: A Comparative Analysis, 3rd edn (Oxford University Press, 2011); Ewan Ferlie, Kathleen McLaughlin, and Stephen Osborne (eds), New Public Management: Current Trends and Future Prospects (Routledge, 2005).
For an overview on neoliberal governance, please see David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford University Press, 2007). The textbox on ‘Neoliberalism’ and other information from this chapter drew summarily on insights from Manfred B. Steger and Ravi K. Roy, Neoliberalism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2010).
The source for Box 8 is David Osborne and Ted Gaebler, ‘Reinventing government (1992)’, cited in Robert B. Denhardt, Theories of Public Organization, 5th ed. (Wadsworth, 2007).
For an excellent discussion on civic engagement, participatory governance, and collaborative management, please see Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Touchstone Books by Simon & Schuster, 2001).
We also suggest: Michael McGuire, Collaborative Public Management: New Strategies for Local Governments (Georgetown University Press, 2003); and Eugene Bardach, Getting Agencies to Work Together: The Practice and Theory of Managerial Craftsmanship (Brookings Institution Press, 1998).
For perspectives on reflective practice and public value, please see Donald A. Schön, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (Basic Books, 1984); and Mark Moore, Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government (Harvard University Press, 1995). Relatedly, we also suggest: Terry Cooper, The Responsible Administrator: An Approach to Ethics for the Administrative Role, 6th edn (Jossey-Bass, 2012).
For deeper insights on ‘systems thinking’ and ‘profound knowledge’, please see W. Edwards Deming, The New Economics for Industry, Government and Education, 2nd edn (MIT Press, 2000). For a readable and concise overview of Deming and ‘quality management’, please see William J. Bellows’ three-part article entitled ‘Lessons from Deming: A Brief History of Quality’ published in the Lean Management Journal: ‘Part-One’, March 2015; ‘Part-Two’, April 2015; ‘Part-Three’, May 2015.
The table entitled ‘Characteristics of a learning organization’ that appears in this chapter was included with the expressed permission of Gipsie B. Ranney.
Box 9 is adapted from The W. Edwards Deming Institute and W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis (MIT Press) <https://deming.org/theman/theories/fourteenpoints>.
The source for Box 10 is Robert B. Denhardt, Janet V. Denhardt, and Maria P. Aristigueta, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations (Sage Publications, 2012).
Consistent with the scope and accessibility of this Very Short Introduction, we have attempted to hold fast to providing a general discussion of various methodological approaches related to the study of public administration. Approaches emphasizing meticulously constructed narratives to explain why public administrators think and behave the way that they do within particular contexts have been gaining traction within the discourse over the last ten years. A growing body of ‘interpretivist’-based methodological work emphasizing the ascription of particular meanings, known as ‘Hermeneutics’, draws inspiration from cultural anthropology. Work in this promising area could be applied to help improve our conceptual precision when studying and analysing various interpretations and meanings pertaining to such terms as ‘reflective practice’, ‘systems thinking’, and other values-based ‘New Public Service’ approaches. For readers seeking to explore ‘interpretivist’ approaches to public administration and governance in greater depth, we would like to suggest: Colin Hay, ‘Interpreting Interpretivism Interpreting Interpretations: The New Hermeneutics of Public Administration’, Public Administration 89(1) (March 2011), pp. 167–82; and Mark Bevir and R. A. W. Rhodes, Interpreting British Governance: London (Routledge, 2003).
For a solid analytical overview of globalization and network governance, please see Ali Farazmand, Public Administration in a Global Context (Routledge, 2015); Robert Agranoff, Managing Within Networks: Adding Value to Public Organizations (Georgetown University Press, 2007); Stephen Goldsmith and William D. Eggers, Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2004).
We also suggest: Christopher Reddick, Public Administration and Information Technology (Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2011); Robert Behn, ‘The challenge of evaluating m-government, e-government, and p-government: what should be compared with what?’, in Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and David Lazer (eds), Governance in Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government (MIT Press, 2007), pp. 215–38; Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and David Lazer (eds), Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government (MIT Press, 2007); G. Grant and D. Chau, ‘Developing a generic framework for e-Government’, in G. Hunter and F. Tan (eds), Advanced Topics in Global Information Management (Idea Group, 2006), pp. 72–101; Patrick Dunleavy, Helen Margetts, Simon Bastow, and Jane Tinkler, Digital Era Governance: IT Corporations, The State, and E-Government (Oxford University Press, 2006); Darrell West, Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance (Princeton University Press, 2005); Jane Fountain, Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change (Brookings Institution Press, 2001).
The source for Box 11 is Robert Agranoff, Managing Within Networks: Adding Value to Public Organizations (Georgetown University Press, 2007).
Forward-looking perspectives on public administration can be found in: Carolyn Ban and Norma M. Riccucci (eds), Public Personnel Management: Current Concerns, Future Challenges, 2nd edn (Longman, 1997); Mary E. Guy and Marilyn M. Rubin (eds), Public Administration Evolving: From Foundations to the Future (Routledge, 2015); Rosemary O’Leary, David Van Slyke, and Soonhee Kim (eds), The Future of Public Administration Around the World: The Minnowbrook Perspective (Georgetown University Press, 2011); B. Guy Peters, The Future of Governing (University Press of Kansas, 2001); Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Oxford University Press, 2013).
The survey data cited from the Ipsos MORI report was drawn from a news release pertaining to a New Accenture Report, 22 October 2012. According to the news release, ‘Accenture asked Oxford Economics to project total government spending on public service through 2025 in 10 countries—Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States’. <https://newsroom.accenture.com/subjects/research-surveys/future-demand-for-public-services-driven-by-an-aging-population-will-cost-the-us-government-an-additional-940-billion-by-2025-according-to-new-accenture-report.htm>.