Summary
Contents
Subject index
The Third Edition of this successful textbook introduces students to the major concepts, models, and approaches surrounding the public sector. Now fully updated to include coverage of the New Public Management (NPM), The Public Sector is the most comprehensive textbook on theories of public policy and public administration. The Public Sector is introduced within a three-part framework: public resource allocation, redistribution and regulation. Jan-Erik Lane explains the basic concepts of each of these broad areas, and goes on to examine their consequences for various approaches to the making and implementation of public policy. The book explores models of management, effectiveness and
Introduction: Public Institutions and Interests
Introduction: Public Institutions and Interests
The public sector (though variable) has an enormous impact on us all. How can we tell whether it is doing too much or too little, whether or not it is doing the job efficiently and effectively, whether or not it serves the public? According to a traditional model it served the public through a set of hierarchical structures responsive to politicians. Speaking generally, politicians were to take care of the normative side of things, pursuing public interests as it were, and effective bureaucracies were to ensure that goals were carried into effect. Many studies have questioned the responsiveness and efficiency of this model and its applicability to the real world.
In the liberal democracies or the so-called ...
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