Connected Yet Distinct: The Evolution and Role of Korean Public Administration in Bridging Theory and Practice

I would like to extend my thanks to Étienne Charbonneau and his colleagues and to Eric Zeemering for their articles on the reception accorded to scholarly articles in Canadian Public Administration (CPA) and to Michael Howlett, Susan Phillips, and Al Roberts for their commentaries. In my view, even though one could get lost in further debate on the salience and meaningfulness of impact factors, that is far less important than the implication: we need a forward-looking discussion on the future of Canadian public administration scholarship, where investments need to be made to selectively focus scholarly effort, and how to foster renewal as public administration and governance challenges continue to multiply. In what follows I propose that thought leaders in public-service institutions and partner organizations such as The Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) to work systematically with leading scholars and the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPA) to explore collaborative models which fit with the pace and incentives of their respective work environments. A long line of editors have tried to ensure that CPA is relevant to scholars and practitioners alike in Canada, and to showcase the range of work undertaken by Canadian public administration scholars and to encourage practitioners to contribute to the literature as well, and occasionally to stimulate debate. As editor, my goal has not been to move the impact factor rankings,1 despite being well aware of them; rather the goal has been to showcase the eclectic range of public administration research and thinking in Canada. To do otherwise would make the journal into a different kind of publication, favouring certain kinds of scholarship over others, when an ever-expanding array of journals exist precisely as outlets for specific kinds of scholarship. We have encouraged more comparative articles with Canadian case studies and more articles on Indigenous governance and administration against the backdrop of Canada’s system of multi-level governance, and we have tried to showcase emerging currents in scholarly work with the New Frontiers series. Reflecting how scholarship has evolved in Canada, CPA has not had a succession of heavy-duty quantitative studies like those appearing in Public Administration Review, Journal of Policy Research and Theory, and several other highly ranked international public administration journals, but we have published several more focused quantitative studies. Nor has CPA been a site for sharing new theories of public administration and policy-making, but Canadian scholars do draw on these theories in the pages of this journal to inform qualitative and quantitative empirical studies. However, it is important to point out that, Canadians such as Michael Howlett, Jeremy Rayner, and Adam Wellstead—to name only a few—have been at the forefront of international efforts to push theoretical boundaries either by creating new journals (e.g., Politics & Society) or working through established journals (e.g., Policy Sciences, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Governance in the case of Al Roberts, Nonprofit Quarterly in the case of Susan Phillips) to pursue these lines of inquiry. While Charbonneau et al. (2018) and Zeemering (2018) examine in different ways the international interest in articles published in CPA, neither directly explores the impact of the full corpus of work of Canadian public administration scholars, which would include articles in international journals, books, and chapters in book collections. Nor do they explore the extent to which Canadian scholars have and are either serving as lead editors or on the editorial teams of leading international journals in our field, let alone serving on editorial advisory boards. For this observer, what is most interesting about the Australian experience is the country’s explicit ratings of journals for its Excellence in Research in Australia (ERA) initiative and anticipation of its impact on domestic journals, such as The Australian Journal of Public Administration which works with different incentives, and some protection, and different content.2 In Canada the focus on impact factors has been round-about and bottom-up, with certain departments and universities focusing heavily on impact factors when evaluating the portfolios of junior and mid-career scholars up for promotion, as well as overall international university rankings. We simply operate with different incentive systems and supports. However, for years—and even decades—developing scholars have known that they should diversify their publication portfolios with a mix of articles in domestic and international journals in their field. Over the last thirty years, there has been an extraordinary increase in the number and range of journals in every field reflecting ever-increasing specialization in distinct substantive, epistemological, and methodological approaches. The overlapping fields of public administration and public policy are no different. It is to be expected that aspiring and established scholars submit more of their articles in specialized journals which match their research interests. The implication, of course, is that scholars focusing on studies (qualitative or quantitative) of Canadian national institutions and policies, or comparisons among provinces, territories and municipalities, and increasingly Indigenous governance and administration, would find their way into a domestic journal like Canadian Public Administration. Another implication is that publications in CPA represent only a fraction of most productive scholars’ work. If journals largely reflect the manuscripts which come their way, and if CPA’s mandate is to showcase applied research and thinking on Canadian public administration, this begs the question of the trajectory of Canadian scholarship, and how it has been evolving and the directions it could take. We are seeing the last of an incredibly productive generation of public administration scholars leave our field (the very ones who modernized our field in the 1970s). Most of my generation of now “senior” scholarly colleagues across the country through teaching, consulting and research activities are well aware of the current and emerging challenges for Canadian public administration. We can see that huge domains (e.g., regulation, Crown corporations, financial management and budgeting, the effects of digital tools on all aspects of public administration, to name only a few) have not benefited from systematic research, let alone emerging governance and public administration priorities. And, despite increasing emphasis on publishing in peer-reviewed journals with higher impact factors, my sense is that most Canadian scholars in public administration believe that good research is applied research and this should involve engaging, often collaborating with and influencing practitioners who themselves are busier than ever. This, interestingly, is the direction that the research evaluation framework of the UK and Australia have been moving towards (Gunn and Mintrom 2018; Australian Research Council 2017). Making credible and timely efforts to address contemporary governance challenges in public administration will require larger multi-disciplinary, multi-method, and multi-generational teams (comprised of established scholars and PhD and post-doctoral students from across the country). Furthermore, we will need more creative and time-sensitive means for connecting scholars with public servants (executives, senior managers, and innovators) which address the respective incentive systems and faster-paced environment in which both work.3 Both communities should recognize that important spin-offs will be more fundamental and longer-term research projects from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) grants and PhD dissertations which enrich the field for decades to come but also lead to more up-to-date materials for instructors to use in MPA and MPP programs across the country. Such research, even if geared to Canadian challenges, promises to be internationally significant. Making this happen will mean rediscovering and tweaking institutional repertoires, perhaps in a cross-institutional manner. For years, IPAC organized study teams with scholars and practitioners to explore issues, which led to many publications, often engaged new scholars, and lasting relationships with practitioners; and the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS) during the late 1990s invested in what were essentially study teams with leading Canadian and international scholars informing roundtables with top officials and in the early 2000s the action-research roundtables, led by ADMs, which also explicitly engaged promising young public servants and graduate students. These important means for addressing emerging issues and gaps in the literature have fallen by the way for several years, but remain salient. Those who have tried to secure SSHRC partnership grants for more comprehensive research initiatives in public administration find that the LOI process and lead times take far too long and the success rates too low in fast-moving areas of inquiry, but SSHRC does have repertoires such as its Imaging Canada’s Future initiative works with federal departments for identifying selected scholars to undertake literature views and discussion papers on priority topics. The drawback here, though, is that the field tends to be pulled in selective ways, when we need to develop a rolling, whole-of-field perspective on what needs to be accomplished across the waterfront of public administration. There is great potential to work across these institutions to sponsor agile high-impact research and interactive processes with practitioners, and that partnerships across CSPS, IPAC, SSHRC, and, Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) can point the way requiring only modest resources. We can take inspiration from countries like Australia and New Zealand which through ANZSOG and partner national and state governments have directly supported building applied research capacity, and the Netherlands, where government seems to regularly support leading-edge research initiatives with teams of scholars, which have greatly raised the profile of Dutch public administration scholars, in addition to their curiosity-driven research. It is my hope that the exchange in this issue about whether articles in CPA have high journal impact factors instead serves to stimulate a broader strategic conversation about the trajectory and strategic support for applied public administration scholarship in Canada. By making time-sensitive investments in multi-institutional and multi-generational collaboration with practitioners, I am confident that the fruits of such investment will affect the trajectory and breadth of scholarship in the field of Canadian public administration, particularly with regard to emerging issues, which will eventually be reflected in the pages and impact factors of this journal. EAL

Citation (2023), "Prelims", Caruana, J., Bisogno, M. and Sicilia, M. (Ed.) Measurement in Public Sector Financial Reporting: Theoretical Basis and Empirical Evidence (Emerald Studies in Public Service Accounting and Accountability), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. i-xxiv. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-161-820231012

On the strength of a trend of globalization and efforts by the South Korean government and universities, the number of foreign students enrolled in degree programs in South Korea underwent an explosive rise from 3,963 in 2000 to roughly 60,000 in 2010. Meanwhile, students from China have emerged as the largest foreign consumers of South Korean higher education, accounting for fully 70% of all foreign students in the country. For this study, a questionnaire was given to students in China to determine the factors influencing their selection of a university in South Korea and to analyze the relationship between these factors and their satisfaction with overseas study opportunities in South Korea and actual intention to select a South Korean university. The findings were as follows. First, five areas were identified as potential factors in the selection of South Korea as a destination for foreign studies, namely national recognition, the effects of the Korean Wave, study costs, geographical proximity, and study procedures. Examination of these areas showed economic factors to have the largest influence on the choice of South Korea as an exchange study destination, followed by national recognition and exchange study procedures. Geographical proximity and the Korean Wave were found to have no significant effect. Second, nine areas were isolated for measurement in terms of their influence on Chinese students' selection of a particular South Korean university, namely its student administration system, residence conditions, employment support systems, financial aid systems, exchange placement organizations, exchange study costs, language institute services, university recognition, and university education level. The results showed significant effects for educational level, costs, administration system, placement organizations, recognition, employment support systems, and financial aid systems. Residence conditions and language institute services were found to have no significant effect. Third, satisfaction with South Korean universities was found to have a positive effect on students' intention to select a South Korean university. Higher levels of satisfaction with South Korean universities were found to be associated with high levels of intention to select a South Korean university. The significance and limitations of this paper are as follows:First this paper's result doesn't show all foreign students' peculiarities who study in korea because this research only focuses on chinese students. So the focus of research should be expanded from only chinese students to all foreign students. Second, this research's questionnaire doesn't fully have reliability and validity. The questionnaire used in this research is not the standardized questionnaire for analyzing factors influencing the selection of universities in South korea, but maed by the researcher with other former researchers' questionnaire. Third, the people in this study were students, who didn't select korean university and may sellect korean university in the future. So they could make different choice when they actually go to korean university. So it is hard to say the result of this study is a general tendency. The results suggest that continued success in measures to attract foreign exchange students will require ongoing attention to the reasons that influence exchange students' destination selection and the factors behind their selection of South Korea and its universities, using this as a basis for improvements to exchange student recruitment policies and strategies aimed at stepping up the internationalization and competitiveness of South Korea and its universities in order to continue attracting the rapidly increasingly numbers of Chinese students.

The twenty‐first century is characterized by rapid change, globalization, hyper‐competition, and hyper‐uncertainty. Traditional models of governance and public administration are no match for the challenges of this chaotic environment. This essay argues for building new administrative capacity in response to these serious governance dilemmas. Offered as a modest prescription, this new administrative capacity is proposed to cope more effectively with an increasingly unknowable world. The article opens with an overview of key issues, then focuses directly on the nature and trends of global public sector changes, and concludes by elaborating on the building of such administrative capacity. The author's proposals are presented from a macro perspective: first, suggestions for revitalizing public service and administration given the current crisis; second, macro strategies for enhancing capacity design; and third, specific reforms for strengthening governance, instrumental and administrative capacities, along with concrete recommendations for public administration.

Public administration, as the implementing body of public policies, plays a fundamental role in main­taining financial stability and fostering sustainable private sector development. Our study investigates the extent to which the quality of public governance – a direct reflection of administrative capacity – in­fluences corporate taxation outcomes in the energy sector, deeply affected by financial crises and armed conflicts all over the world. Administrative capacity plays an important role in supporting competition, simplifying bureaucracy, and ensuring transparency in public spending. Strengthening the role of admin­istrative capacity, particularly in the energy sector, is a key factor in public sector reform. The empirical study analyzes the non-financial companies from the EU-27 countries, over the peri­od 2004-2023, and integrates as main independent variables the public governance indicators. Our findings indicate that stronger governance, partic­ularly where public administration is effective and transparent, contributes to the increase in corporate income tax and, implicitly, to increasing revenue col­lection. From a public policy perspective, the quan­titative study results underscore the importance of strengthening administrative institutions and public governance mechanisms to improve taxpayers’ vol­untary compliance.

PurposeDespite the growing volume of European Union (EU) investments into reforms and public administration, how EU support contributes to administrative reform and capacity building at domestic level is still unclear. The article explains the EU's influence, domestic politicisation and previous administrative capacity on organisational change whilst implementing European Social Fund-financed projects during the programming period 2014–2020.Design/methodology/approachBy going beyond the EU-centred approach and based on different strands of the new institutionalism, the authors offer three explanations on the influence of EU support. The authors performed the qualitative content analysis of 29 case studies and matched the implementation of the projects with the authors' explanations.FindingsThe authors' research results indicate that progress in the implementation of the projects was determined by domestic factors rather than EU conditionalities. The influence of domestic politicisation was found to be mixed, but higher levels of initial administrative capacity proved to be most important to achieving organisational change.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors' judgement of the project implementation and their success was based on the information provided in the case studies at the time of implementation.Practical implicationsThe authors' research points to the essential need for the initial and gradual development of administrative capacity to achieve good reform results.Originality/valueBased on the different logics of the new institutionalism, we developed specific mechanisms for organisational change. The authors' research results deepen the understanding of how politicisation positively or negatively shapes reform implementation, as well as how pre-existing administrative capacity and further development of pre-existing administrative capacity dynamically occurs through a process of socialisation and learning.

This article offers historical interpretation of the role of the administrative state in the construction of social order and articulates the foundation of theoretical modelfor the study of the relationship between globalization and public administration. The author contends that the study of public administration in times of global interpenetration requires reinterpretation of the administrative state at historic moment when profound changes are underway in conventional understanding of the general interest, of social responsibility, and of the relationship between the market and the state. In order to actively participate in building the new structures of social relations that globalization is bringing about, the discipline of public administration must develop its theoretical capacity to transcend the ahistorcal, voluntaristic, instrumental, parochial, and state-centered nature of its approaches and explanations. Reviews of the historical evolution of the discipline of public administration often acknowledge that the practice of public administration is as old as society itself.' This awareness, however, has not generated systematic efforts to elucidate the relationship between sociohistorical change and public administration.2 The result of this is absence of sound explanations of the role of public administration in the formation, reproduction, and transformation of social relations and social order. Therefore, the study of public administration lacks of the state and explanation of the role of state bureaucracy in the development of modern political societies.3 The objective of this article is both to develop historical interpretation of the evolution and social significance of the administrative state and to develop foundation for theoretical for the study of public administration in times of global 615/Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 'This article discusses the public administration tradition initiated by Woodrow Wilson. 2This is not to suggest that there have not been important and successful attempts to explain this relationship within specific temporal and spatial contexts (see Stillman 1991; Rouban 1993). 3To large extent, the absence of such and explanation is due to the fact that the intellectual development of public administration has been based largely on the view of the United States as stateless society (see Stillman 1991, 19-41). J-PART 7(1997):4:615-638 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.176 on Sat, 09 Apr 2016 06:47:50 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Public Administration in Times of Global Interpenetration interpenetration.4 The purpose of the is to facilitate understanding of the broad framework of historical limitations and possibilities within which public administrators operate today. Needless to say, this is only preliminary attempt to overcome public administration's inability to deal theoretically with the relationship between sociohistorical change and the administrative state. Part 1 of this article is critical characterization of the intellectual foundations of the public administration discipline. Part 2 outlines and interprets the historical evolution of the administrative state. Out of this historical analysis public administration emerges as systemic activity-the purpose of which is to institutionalize patterns of social relations over time and space. This conceptualization is central to the rationale of the theoretical that is presented in part 3. Part 4 offers some concluding remarks about the study and the practice of public administration at century's end. THE STUDY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: A CHARACTERIZATION Critical analyses of the intellectual foundations of public administration abound (see for example, Dahl 1947; Mosher 1956; Charlesworth 1968; Heady 1979; Guerreiro Ramos 1981; Daneke 1990; Riggs 1991; Bailey and Mayer 1992). Nevertheless, the discipline continues to be characterized by the ahistorical, instrumental, voluntaristic, parochial, and state-centered nature of its approaches and explanations. These characteristics severely limit public administration's capacity to deal theoretically with the crucial relationship between sociohistorical change and the administrative state. Public administration is ahistorical because it is fundamentally concerned with the synchrony of the administrative state rather than with its dyachrony (see de Saussure 1986, 80).5 In other words, it is concerned with the study of the functions and structures that characterize the administrative state within given moment of its history rather than with the study of the evolution of the administrative state over time.6 Ahistorical approaches in public administration follow instrumental theoretical orientation. Public administration generally can be regarded as instrumental because it is concerned primarily with the immediate and practical problems of public administration rather than with explaining the historical and structural factors that condition the organization and administration of the state.7 6161J-PART, October 1997 4A can be defined as a conceptualization of group of phenomena, constructed by means of rationale, where the ultimate purpose is to furnish the terms and relations, the propositions of formal system which, if validated, becomes, theory (Willer 1967, 15. The rationale of constitutes an explanation of the nature of the included phenomena and leads to the nominal definitions of the concepts of the model

Professor Ali Farazmand has written a manifesto for administrative action in an effort to improve public governance and administration capacity not only for today but also for tomorrow, which is highly volatile and uncertain. Farazmand's earlier works, especially his essay “Globalization and Public Administration” (PAR, November/December 1999), are familiar to many students and scholars in public administration around the world.

Responding to the modern challenges in the educational domain and an increase interest of the appropriate level of English among the public servants of SESU, the Language Training Department of the Institute of Public Administration in the Sphere of Civil Protection initiated the research work aimed to improve the training content and methodology of teaching English for Specific Purposes for level in the field of expertize 281 ‘Public Administration’ in April 2019.
 A significant contribution to the development of the theory, methodology and the certain methodological issue developing were made by a number of scientist such as O. Bykonia, V. Chernysh, Z. Korneeva, G. Dyvnych, R. Makarova, Ya. Mandryk, M. Dyachenko, T. Dudley-Evans, T. Hutchinson, A. Waters, P. Strevens and others.
 At the same time, some thorough research of the legal framework in order to reveal the potential premises to improve methodology of teaching English for Specific Purposes for level in the field of expertize 281 ‘Public Administration’ has not been done under the condition of modern reforms in the education domain.
 The legal framework in order to reveal the potential premises to improve methodology of teaching English for Specific Purposes for the second (Master) level in field of expertize 281 ‘Public Administration’ is under consideration.
 The article outlines the main peculiarities of the current legal framework related to the teaching English for Specific Purpose which is used as the premise for further analysis of the current curriculums used in the Language Training Department of the Institute of Public Administration in the Sphere of Civil Protection. The list of legal framework includes the Law on Education, The Law on Higher Education, The law on State Service, National ESP Curriculum of English.
 Clarifying the terminology used in the current regulatory environment in the sphere of professional activities of future public leaders and managers (individual learning curve, competence, learning outcomes, language proficiency, universal design in the sphere of education, curricula) has given the authors an opportunity to reveal the methodological value of the National ESP Curriculum of English and clarify the appropriate language level for Master’s degree students, evaluate the current curriculum used by the Language Training Department of the Institute of Public Administration in the Sphere of Civil Protection.
 Foreign language professional competence is a multi-component, hierarchically organized and multi-level phenomenon based on professional skills, knowledge and awareness.
 English for Specific Purposes as a discipline can be considered as the tool for developing special professional skills that create the premises to deal efficiently with challenges concerning public management, political-legislation, social-economic issues.
 The further analysis of the universal design in the educational sphere also let the authors clarify the teaching materials peculiarities; correlate the international current testing system with NATO STANAG 6001 used within SESU and explain the necessity to implement В1 (CEF) /СМР1+(NATO STANAG 6001) for Master’s degree students in in the field of expertize 281 ‘Public Administration’.
 The analysis of the current legal framework related to the second (Master) educational level in field of expertize 281 ‘Public Administration has revealed the fact that, on the one hand, the current curricula structural elements and content as the elements of educational design comply with the legislation norms, on the other hand, the issues of looking for improving the training content and efficient teaching techniques to obtain the desirable language level for Master’s degree students have to be under further consideration.

Journal editors who publish papers authored by colleagues and former graduate students have been charged with practicing favoritism, with the implication that the papers in question are of lower quality than those written by scholars with no ties to the editor. Using citation analysis, the authors find strong evidence that although journal editors occasionally publish subpar papers authored by colleagues and former graduate students, on balance their use of professional connections enables them to identify and 'capture' high-impact papers for publication. This implies that a practice interpreted as favoritism by many scholars in fact serves to enhance efficiency in the market for scientific knowledge. Copyright 1994 by University of Chicago Press.

For decades, scholars and politicians have vigorously debated whether Confucianism is compatible with democracy, yet little is known about how it affects the process of democratization in East Asia. In this book, Doh Chull Shin examines the prevalence of core Confucian legacies and their impacts on civic and political orientations in six Confucian countries: China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Analyses of the Asian Barometer and World Values surveys reveal that popular attachment to Confucian legacies has mixed results on democratic demand. While Confucian political legacies encourage demand for a non-liberal democratic government that prioritizes the economic welfare of the community over the freedom of individual citizens, its social legacies promote interpersonal trust and tolerance, which are critical components of democratic civic life. Thus, the author argues that citizens of historically Confucian Asia have an opportunity to combine the best of Confucian ideals and democratic principles in a novel, particularly East Asian brand of democracy.

Administrative capacity depends on the nature of the state of which the administrative system is an integral part. In recent years, there has been a revival of debates on the role of public administration under developmental states in Southeast Asia and Latin America. A major analytical component of developmental states has been their administrative capacity and how to build it. There are significant variations in administrative capacity among developmental states caused by divergences in their historical, economic, political, and cultural contexts. This article compares two cross-continental cases (Singapore and Chile) with regard to the formations of developmental states shaping their administrative systems and capacity-building initiatives. It examines the divergences in their state formations and the contextual factors affecting their administrative capacity. The article concludes by making some generalizations, offering an analytical framework for further research, and suggesting policies needed for building effective administrative capacity. Points for practitioners This article highlights the significance of administrative capacity-building for development. It explores how this capacity is shaped by the formation of the state under which public administration functions. In explaining this relationship between state formation and public administration, the article specifically focuses on the “developmental” state, compares two cross-continental cases (Singapore and Chile) as regards how these two developmental states differ and cause variations in their administrative systems, and explains the major contextual factors leading to such variations. This understanding is crucial to designing effective policies for building administrative capacity in any country depending on its state formation and context.

In responding to the Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, some government policies have been more effective in containing, suppressing, and mitigating the disease than others. Government leaders and public administrators can learn from other countries and adapt these lessons to their crisis management and public health systems. South Korea has emerged as a model to emulate in fighting the pandemic. While South Korea endured devastating early outbreaks, the country flattened the coronavirus curve without paralyzing the national health and economic systems. The author reviews South Korea’s public health policy approaches and the embedded context, by using documents and materials written in Korean and English, to learn how the country managed coronavirus from January through April 2020. The critical factors in South Korea’s public health administration and management that led to success include national infectious disease plans, collaboration with the private sector, stringent contact tracing, an adaptive health care system, and government-driven communication. This article also proposes some key aspects to be considered to transfer lessons from country-level responses in South Korea to other contexts.

This article examines the comprehensive educational framework for Public Management and Administration at Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University, spanning bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels. The study focuses on the program's innovative approach to cultivating a new generation of public administrators equipped to address contemporary governance challenges. Particular emphasis is placed on the program's unique integration of academic expertise and practical governance experience through its faculty composition, which includes former senior government officials, parliamentary deputies, and distinguished scholars from the National Academy of Public Administration. The research details the implementation of progressive pedagogical methodologies, including innovative assessment techniques and experiential learning opportunities. A significant aspect of the program involves strategic partnerships with regional governance structures, facilitating student immersion in practical governance through internships and collaborative projects across Zhytomyr Oblast. The article argues that this integrated approach represents a significant advancement in public administration education, effectively bridging theoretical knowledge and practical application while addressing regional development needs. The structural design of these educational-professional and educational-scientific programs demonstrates a clear alignment with contemporary labor market demands and the evolving needs of the public sector. The curriculum is strategically developed to cultivate a new generation of specialists equipped for multifaceted roles within executive bodies, local self-government institutions, and the non-governmental sector. Beyond preparing graduates for traditional administrative functions, the programs place significant emphasis on fostering research and innovation capabilities. This dual focus aims to develop professionals who can not only implement existing administrative procedures but also generate new, evidence-based knowledge and initiate transformative professional practices within public administration. A central objective of the program is to equip graduates with the competencies necessary to ensure the delivery of administrative services that meet socially acceptable standards. This entails instilling a deep commitment to the core principles of modern governance: openness, transparency, accountability, and professionalism. The curriculum is designed to be resilient and forward-looking, preparing students to operate effectively both in the current, challenging conditions and in the complex environment of post-war recovery and reconstruction. The program's content is characterized by its logical coherence and rigorous alignment with the subject area of specialty D4 "Public Management and Administration." It provides a balanced and robust foundation in both theoretical concepts and applied practical skills. This ensures that graduates are not merely executors of tasks, but are critical thinkers and capable managers, prepared to lead and administer public sector organizations effectively. A defining feature of the educational framework is its commitment to flexibility through the implementation of individualized educational trajectories. This approach acknowledges the diverse career goals, prior experiences, and research interests of students. The mechanism for personalization is realized through several key instruments: Students are offered a wide selection of specialized courses and modules, allowing them to tailor their learning to specific areas of interest within public administration, such as healthcare management, regional development, or digital governance. The program facilitates practical experiences in various types of institutions (state authorities, local councils, NGOs), enabling students to align their internships with their professional aspirations. Provisions for individual schedules and the recognition of prior learning outcomes provide additional flexibility, catering to the needs of different student cohorts. Opportunities for participation in national and international exchange programs further enrich the individual learning path, exposing students to diverse administrative practices and academic environments. This learner-centered model empowers students to construct an educational experience that is directly relevant to their personal and professional ambitions, thereby enhancing the efficacy and relevance of their training. This operational framework for individualized learning is underpinned by a systematic approach to choice architecture. Students exercise agency in selecting not only elective courses but also the specific pedagogical formats—such as project-based seminars, policy labs, or traditional lectures—that best align with their learning preferences. The diversity of educational components ranges from foundational theoretical modules to advanced specialized tracks, each calibrated for varying levels of complexity to accommodate both early-career professionals and seasoned practitioners. The program's pedagogical design intentionally cultivates higher-order cognitive capabilities essential for public sector innovation. This includes structured training in heuristic problem-solving for ill-defined administrative challenges, methodologies for policy prototyping, and systematic approaches to organizational change management. A distinctive feature is the integration of research-led teaching, where students actively engage in applied policy analysis and develop evidence-based interventions for real-world public management issues. Furthermore, the curriculum embeds rigorous training in academic research methodologies, positioning graduates to contribute meaningfully to the scholarly discourse on public administration. This research competence extends beyond technical skill acquisition to encompass the development of original conceptual frameworks and empirical studies that address substantive gaps in both theoretical understanding and professional practice. The emphasis on generating knowledge with demonstrable scientific novelty and practical impact ensures graduates can function effectively at the intersection of academic inquiry and administrative innovation.

Both bureaucratic and democratic ideals are essential elements of the public administration ethos, yet these two sets of ideals have not been effectively integrated in an ethic of public administration. Ethics has been approached primarily from a rule-oriented bureaucratic perspective that gives little guidance to administrators who wish to promote democratic ideals and function ethically in an increasingly political administrative role. This article suggests that ethics can be approached, instead from a political perspective that recognizes public administrators as political authorities legitimated and constrained by the same belief system that legitimates and constrains elected and judicial officials. Approaching ethics from a political perspective permits administrators to pursue democratic ideals by exercising political judgment and participating in the political process of policy making. At the same time, a political ethic of public administration establishes constraints on such administrative activity through a recognition that bureaucratic values are essential to the legitimacy of public administration. Therefore, active involvement in the political environment is ethical only in the pursuit of democratic values and only if it does not undermine the legitimacy of public administration. Professional ethics can be understood as the set of ideal standards whose purpose is to translate the profession's ethos (the fundamental principles, rules, and ideals that form its distinctive character) into everyday practice. Public administrators are still striving to develop an understanding of the ethics of their profession, not because it is so new, but because understanding of the profession and its role in government has changed dramatically over the years. The perception of administration as a managerial endeavor separate from politics has been largely abandoned in favor of the view that public administration is inescapably a part of politics; administrative action is no longer viewed as value neutral but rather as heavily value laden. Although the ethic of “neutral competence” effectively translated the ideal of a politics/administration dichotomy into practice, when that ideal was no longer accepted as descriptive of administrative reality, the search began for a new ethic of public administration. Such was the state of discourse about public administration ethics 20 years ago at the time of the original Minnowbrook conference. Then, a group of faculty members, denying the possibility of a value-free science of administration, set out to define a new, and more egalitarian, ethic of public administration. Since that time many others have joined in the effort to illuminate the meaning of the public administrator's role in government, the ideals associated with the profession, and its ethics and responsibilities. Even so, many still view public administration ethics as ambiguous and confusing. This article is an interpretation of the complex set of ideals that make up the ethos of public administration, followed by the suggestion that a different perspective on administrative ethics must be adopted if professional ideals are to be translated into practice. Such a change is needed to move public administration ethics beyond its present state of confusion.