Public Organizations and Public Policies

The primary task of public organizations is to implement the policies enacted by governments. How well government achieves important policy goals is, to a great extent, a function of the capacity of public administration. Other factors are critical, such as legislative commitments of authority and resources to policy goals, and executive decisions concerning priorities and tradeoffs among competing concerns, in determining whether or not policy goals are realized Public organizations play important roles in the shaping of political systems in general. But policy success is intertwined in particular with administrative capacity. A public policy-based approach to viewing public organizations suggests numerous avenues. I focus on three broad themes.

First, the tremendous growth in the range and scope ...