Summary
Contents
Subject index
Written by two of the leading scholars in the field, this book explores public administration in the past, present and future, critically reviewing the modernization of public management reform. It reasserts public administration as an integral component of democratic governance and fostering a state-citizen relationship. Wide-ranging in scope, The Next Public Administration: • Extends basic public administration to consider issues associated with management, governance and democracy • Covers core public administration concepts and their evolution through time • Draws on an international spread of examples, bringing theoretical discussions to life • Includes lists of further reading Essential reading for students of public management and public administration.
Neutrality Versus Responsiveness
Neutrality Versus Responsiveness
Public administration is a component of the political system. The managerialist approach to administration tends to consider the public bureaucracy in strictly instrumental terms and to assume that it is essentially the same as private management (see Chapter 2). But that managerialist conception tends to undervalue, or even ignore, the public nature of this institution. Especially in a democratic system, the public nature of the institution implies that public administrators should, up to a point, be responsive to political pressures. The questions, however, are how responsive should they be, and to whom? These are not easy questions and can be answered in several ways with equal validity.
This chapter will focus on public administrators and their individual political neutrality and ...
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