Political Legitimacy for Public Administration

From a comparative perspective, systems of public administration vary tremendously in their relation to societal actors and the public at large. One could mention variation in degrees of patronage, clientelism and corruption, patterns of recruitment, and the ways in which the bureaucracy coordinates its activities with various civic networks and organized interests. One perennial question in this research is, of course, why do some countries have more efficient systems of public administration than others? One answer may be that this is determined by the amount of trust citizens have in the bureaucracy in their country, region or city. Simply put, it is easier to govern, coordinate, control, steer and/or manage a complicated system if one is ...