Public Administration

This is a complete and up-to-date revision of the classic text for public administration, implementing the rule of law as a fundamental issue in American democracy in pursuit of the common interest. It presents public administration as a tension between the necessary exercise of power and the search for responsiveness to achieve maximum accountability from public servants. The authors have initiated a new approach to the study of public administration by focusing on middle- and lower-level managers. These are positions that most public servants will occupy for the bulk of their professional careers. The book recognizes that most of the administration is in field offices, in state and local government, and in cooperation with the private and nonprofit sectors. It then focuses on power and its potential for influencing the behavior of the bureaucracy to perform its goal-oriented and balancing functions in a pluralistic open system. This leads to the relationship between theories about administration and the actual practice and how best results (imperative of accountability) are achieved in the increasingly globalized environment.

This text is designed to assist beginning and intermediate level students of public policy, and to stir the imaginations of readers concerned with public policy and administration.

In the third edition of his award-winning book, Hal G. Rainey provides a comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of research on public organizations and management. Drawing on a review of the most current research about government organizations and managers-and about effective and ineffective practices in government-this important resource offers specific suggestions for managing these challenges in today's public organizations. Using illustrative, real-life vignettes and examples, the book provides expert analysis of organizational design, goals, power, effectiveness, leadership, motivation and work attitudes, decision making, and more. Praise for the Prior Editions Best Book Award, Public and Nonprofit Sectors Division of the Academy of Management 'A masterful textbook, as well as an important and original contribution to the public organization theory literature. Rainey's book is the only one available that is both comprehensive in its treatment of organization theory and decidedly ‘public' in its perspective . . . the book is not simply appropriate for courses on public management and organization theory, it is the best book available.' -Public Administration Review 'Comprehensive, coherent, and exceptionally thorough . . . a masterful work.' -Public Productivity and Management Review 'This book is outstanding and the best single-source book available for the topics it addresses. I assign it to my Human Resources Management and Organization Theory seminars, and I ensure that all my doctoral students read it for comprehensive exams.' -Patricia W. Ingraham, Distinguished Professor of Public Administration, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University 'Over the past decade, there have been only a few books that can be used in graduate courses on public organizations. Rainey's book is far and away the best of these books. I know of no other book that manages to provide really serious coverage of the scholarly literature and at the same time provide practical lessons for public managers. It is the best out there.' -Barton Wechsler, professor and director, Truman School of Public Affairs, The University of Missouri 'A tremendous contribution to the field. Rainey's ability to synthesize huge research streams from a variety of fields such as political science, public administration, public management, public policy, business administration, management, psychology, sociology, and others is outstanding.' -Jeffrey L. Brudney, professor of public administration and codirector of the Institute for Nonprofit Organizations, The University of Georgia

This anthology addresses several of the most central ideas in the field of public administration. The essays explore 'political theories' as Dwight Waldo referred to them. These ideas ultimately are not resolvable, yet they are crucial to understanding the nature of public administration practice. The tension between democracy and efficiency yields a constant struggle between being more effective and more efficient. The readings in this volume explore whether there can be a science of administration, how we should think about administrative accountability, what the nature of the relationship between citizen and state is, if professionalism is an adequate mechanism for ensuring accountability, and how efficient bureaucracy can or should be.

The ASPA Classics Volumes serve to bridge the practice of public policy and administration with the empirical research base that has accrued and the models for practice that may be deduced from research.

Public Administration in the Global Village offers a global and comparative approach to the study of public administration. It examines the ongoing international changes in the field of public administration; it defines the emerging new world order and the promises and challenges that it holds for public administration; and it stipulates the effects and side effects of these changes on developing countries. The volume seeks to promote a global and comparative perspective on public administration to counter the continuing parochialism and ethnocentrism in the field.

Without jargon or mathematical theory to hinder a quick understanding and use, here are the research tools and techniques you can grasp and immediately apply to obtain research services from others or do research yourself. Johnson makes clear that to succeed in any public agency management position, you have to be able to think analytically and know how to assess the quality of research results. By providing the underlying concepts and just enough methodology to operationalize them, she gives you exactly what you need--in a clear, straightforward way that takes the fear out of learning. You will find here an especially wide range of practical guidelines and examples, all from the author's own and others' experiences in a variety of settings within the public sector. Throughout her book she emphasizes the "how" of research--how to do it, how to make sense of its findings--and covers all the basic statistical tools, concentrating steadily on interpreting research results. An important, reader-friendly text for students of public administration, and for their often perplexed colleagues already on the job.

This original study specifies a reflexive language paradigm for public administration thinking and shows how a postmodern perspective permits a revolution in the character of thinking about public bureaucracy. The author considers imagination, deconstruction, deterritorialization, and alterity. Farmer's work emphasizes the need for an expansion in the character and scope of public administration's disciplinary concerns and shows clearly how the study and practice of public administration can be reinvigorated.

Since it was first published more than a decade ago, The Effective Public Manager has become the standard manual for public administrators and students. This practical provides core concepts to help real-world managers and mangers-to-be meet the demands of their jobs head on rather than work around the constraints of government and gives them the tools to shape events rather than be shaped by them. This thoroughly revised third edition Presents an updated and detailed examination of management innovation Examines the centrality of government in an era of global communication and transportation, economic interdependence, and the threat of global terrorism Contains information on the opportunities and challenges of managing public policy from and with private and nonprofit organizations

This accessible introduction to the system of public administrationnbsp;uses a clear, country by country analysis and includes new public management approaches. Including often neglected areas such as the European Union; Japan; Britain; France; Germany; The Republic of Ireland; Italy, Sweden and the United States, this student-friendly volume is a highly valuable resource for students of Politics and Administration at all levels.