Abstract
The German system of Public Administration, which is embedded in the “German Rechtsstaat”-culture and a deeply rooted legalist tradition, is regularly regarded as a reference model to inform reform debates and modernization efforts internationally. Due to its federal structure and the pronouncedly de-centralized institutional setting, the German public administration is regarded as a prime example of multi-level governance and strong local self-government. Furthermore, over the last decades, the traditional profile of the German administrative system has significantly been reshaped and remolded through reforms, modernization activities, and the transformation process in East Germany. Manifold reform approaches, such as territorial amalgamations, privatization and re-municipalization, citizen participation, performance and human resource management, better regulation and digital government, have been pursued at various levels of government and with different impacts. Against this background, we observe an increasing interest in the academic and practitioner’s community to acquire more comprehensive and systematic knowledge about Germany’s administrative system, its institutional structures, functional responsibilities, civil service features, multi-level governance, and most recent reforms. From a Comparative Public Administration perspective, there is a need for more in-depth institutional knowledge concerning various administrative systems in order to capture the peculiarities of different models, to compare their strengths and weaknesses and to learn from each other striving for an improvement of public administration worldwide. This book is meant to address this interest and will provide an overview on key elements of the German public administration at the federal, Lander and local levels of government as well as on current reform activities of the public sector.
Highlights
Background and Approach of the PublicationIn the international community of Public Administration (PA) of scholars and practitioners, there is a growing need to acquire knowledge and information, analysis, reviews and evaluations about Germany’s administrative system and its recent reforms
The subsequent chapters focus on the various fields of administrative reform and modernisation, starting in Part III with reforms intended to reshape the macro-institutional setting of public administration
Among the characteristics of German public administration that are most likely to catch the eye of a foreign observer include the following two phenomena: first, the high density of statutory law regulating the organisation, the procedure and the substantive criteria for the activities of public administration; and second, the almost ubiquitous presence of arguments inferred from constitutional law in the legislative process, court rulings and even administrative decisions
Summary
His areas of research include comparative and international public administration, local government and policy implementation in different policy areas (welfare, planning and environment). Sabine Kuhlmann is Professor of Political Science, Public Administration and Organization at University of Potsdam, Germany, Vice President of the IIAS for Western Europe and Vice-Chair of the National Regulatory Control Council of the German Federal Government. Her areas of research include comparative public administration, public sector reforms, better regulation and local government
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