Study Of Public Administration Research Articles

Machiavelli’s Lessons for Public Administration

On issues concerning the basis and function of political science and public administration as a discipline, Max Weber provides answers that are puzzling when more closely examined. In this article, it is demonstrated that coherent answers to these issues can be found in the work of Niccolò Machiavelli. Moreover, Machiavelli’s perspective can solve the puzzle that Weber creates. This perspective explains, more explicitly and elaborately than Weber, how the practice and the study of public administration are to be distinguished, but, at the same time, are connected and similar. We conclude by showing the implications of Machiavelli’s approach for public administration education, research, and advice.

OVERVIEW OF THEORETICAL CONCEPTS AND PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING THE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC RELATION ON THE ECONOMY SCOPE IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Modernization of the state apparatus becomes a permanent feature and one of the main tasks of any government. Hence the relevance of the research. The analysis of domestic and foreign literature on improving public administration. A theoretical concept for improving the management of the economy include a wide range of views, including the withdrawal of the state from the economy, strengthening the policy focus on cultural values, balanced budget. Identified new approaches to the analysis of public administration: methodology of cultural anthropology, structuralism, social exchange, economic exchange of taxes for social services. It is confirmed that socio-philosophical approach, positivism and the historical approach are important in the study of public administration. The trend of institutionalization of public administration, which finds expression in the definition of the General principles of government, the development of a programme of legislative changes, plans for the formation of state institutions. Actual directions of improvement of public administration are public-private partnerships, project management, cluster approach to investment, planning-programming-budget.

Sociological dominant in research projects in the theory and practice of public administration

The article provides an overview of the theoretical relationships of public administration with the scientific bases of social disciplines. The author defines the relationship between the theory of public administration with the methodological principles and structure of general sociology, and a range of sectoral sociological theories. The principles of the study of public administration are represented in the structure of interactions with the basic elements of macrosociology, empirical sociological studies, and interdisciplinary areas of knowledge. Special attention is paid to the causes and consequences of underestimating of the relationship between sociology and economics. The author approves the need for their synthesis in the development of theoretical models and practical recommendations to the authorities. Concerning the large scale of financial resources from public budgets and the simultaneous crisis of the welfare state in modern Russia, the task to solve the problem of “government failures” becomes really urgent. The multifactor model of the sociological measurement of public administration’s quality is presented as a result of author’s analysis. The basic directions of sociological research of public administration and social policy are proved and connected with the administrative reforms and elaboration of development strategy for Russian society.

Kenneth Kernaghan and Canadian Public Administration: Editor's Note and Remembrances

Kenneth Kernaghan and Canadian Public Administration: Editor's Note and Remembrances

Building Network Implementation Capacity: Evidence from China

ABSTRACTNetwork research increasingly draws attention to capacity affecting outcomes. This study examines network implementation capacity and develops a framework that focuses on three dimensions: financial, managerial, and technical capacity. It also contributes by focusing on the Network Administrator Organization (NAO)-type network. Based on a case study of two large eco-financing networks in China, this study finds positive impacts of network implementation capacity on policy outcomes. It also draws attention to network strategies and their impact on capacity. It identifies the positive effect of efforts to maintain network stability as well as negotiation and participation strategies on network implementation capacity. This study draws attention to implementation capacity as a determinant of network outcomes and suggests that studies in public administration give greater attention to NAO-type networks.

GLOBAL PUBLIC POLICY AND TRANSNATIONAL ADMINISTRATION

There has been a proliferation of administrative practices and processes of policy‐making and policy delivery beyond but often overlapping with traditional nation state policy processes. New formal and informal institutions and actors are behind these policy processes, often in cooperation with national public administrations but sometimes quite independently from them. These ‘multi‐stakeholder initiatives’, ‘global public–private partnerships’ and ‘global commissions’ are creating or delivering global policies even though the geographic pattern of policy action can vary considerably. Implementation may occur at (trans)national or local levels in different regions more or less contemporaneously, or also in problem contexts that are cross‐border and co‐jurisdictional, hence our use of the term ‘transnational administration’. Traditional policy and public administration studies have tended to undertake analysis of the capacity of public sector hierarchies to globalize national policies rather than to investigate transnational policy‐making above and beyond the state. This article extends the ambit of public administration and policy studies into what has traditionally been considered the realm of International Relations scholarship to identify and map new modes of global (public) policy and transnational administration and prospects for ongoing conceptualization.

A Core Issue: The Inseparable Relationship between Nonprofits and Public Policy

Graduates of nonprofit management and public administration programs face a workplace increasingly dominated by complex relationships between government, nonprofit, and for-profit entities. Nonprofit organizations and public policy cannot be understood independently of one another. To assess the role of nonprofits in the policy curriculum, we reviewed 12 public policy textbooks and 143 syllabi from graduate-level public policy courses taught at Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration-accredited programs to assess the extent to which nonprofits are incorporated. Nonprofit organizations deserve full integration into the core curriculum of Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Public Policy (MPP) programs as essential actors in public administration and the policy process. Their ubiquity as policy partners, from problem recognition and advocacy to policy formation, implementation, and evaluation makes understanding nonprofit organizations crucial to the study and practice of public policy and administration.

Regulation Growth and Bureaucratic Politics in the United States

Diverse public administration and governance studies have argued that leviathan governments are no longer capable of efficient administration and that new governing structures should be substituted for traditional government regulations. Nevertheless, a large regulatory structure remains intact in the United States. This paper explores why traditional government regulation has persisted even in the era of new governance. Several regression tests indicate that bureaucratic attempts to secure the survival of agencies rather than administrative effectiveness determine the extent of regulation.

Doing ethnography in a paranoid organization: an autoethnographic account

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine what we can learn from an autoethnographical approach about public administration. In this context it presents and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of autoethnography.Design/methodology/approach– The paper is based on a case study of E-rail, a European national rail service subject to extensive negative press coverage. The autoethnographic accounts, based on interviews, observations, phone calls, e-mails, and other informal interactions with the organizational members, highlight the researcher’s entry to and exit of the organization.Findings– The paper mobilizes fieldwork access negotiation and trust building with participants as empirical material in its own right, arguing that challenges involving “being in the field” should be explored to provide new types of knowledge about the organizational phenomenon under study – in this case the rise of organizational paranoia.Originality/value– This paper uses autoethnography, which is rare in public administration studies, and discusses the distinct features of autoethnography as an ethnographic approach to public organizations. It argues that autoethnographic accounts of fieldwork relationship highlight and challenge the boundaries of the kind of research questions we might ask – and the kind of answers we might provide – about public administration.

Network Ties and Congressional Delegation to U.S. Federal Agencies

Many public administration studies have argued that agency network activity brings about important policy benefits such as informational advantages and stakeholder support. Given the proposition, agency network activity would positively affect congressional delegation because policymaking authority tends to be delegated to the agencies that can achieve appropriate policy outcomes. This hypothesis is examined by several regression tests using data from U.S. federal agencies. Statistical results indicate that the agencies with significant network ties are likely to yield more appropriate public policies and have greater statutory discretion.

Assessing local elected officials’ concerns about interlocal agreements

At times, local politicians are described as barriers to interlocal cooperation; however, recent studies show elected officials are active in interlocal networks and harbour diverse motivations for their involvement in interlocal politics. This research introduces institutional role theory to the study of interlocal politics. Using a survey of elected officials in the San Francisco Bay Area, support for various roles in interlocal politics are assessed in relation to the scope of elected officials’ concerns about the use of interlocal agreements, as well as variables related to institutional context. Exploring elected officials’ concerns about interlocal agreements and the roles they undertake in interlocal politics sheds light on the democratic underpinning of metropolitan civil society and highlights new research opportunities at the intersection of public administration, political science and urban studies.

RESILIENCE THINKING: LESSONS FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The notion of resilience is rapidly gaining influence in public administration practice and research, but a more comprehensive resilience research agenda in public administration is yet to emerge. This article aims to clarify how experiences and potential contributions from social‐ecological resilience research can inform resilience studies in public administration. By contrasting key components of the resilience paradigm and its policy prescriptions with established findings from public administration research, a set of key shortcomings of social‐ecological resilience thinking are identified: (1) deterministic systems models; (2) simplified accounts of politics and policy; and (3) a lack of systematic and generalizable empirical studies. To avoid these shortcomings, it is suggested that public administration resilience studies should explore multiple and competing models for how resilience can be generated; analyse trade‐offs between resilience and other values of public administration; avoid systems theoretical resilience models; and apply the notion of resilience in areas beyond crisis management.

UNDERSTANDING HYBRIDITY IN PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS

This article explores and extends the concept of hybridity to understand current changes in public services organizations, notably as seen from an organizational studies perspective. The notion of hybridity has become more important, given that the public sector increasingly blurs with other sectors and more social actors. Previous reliance on the use of ideal‐types in characterizing public services reforms has masked expanding heterogeneity. We here move beyond the (i) conventional focus on structural hybridity to consider (ii) institutional dynamics, (iii) social interactions, and (iv) new identities and roles in public services. Based on these four dimensions of hybridity, we review alternative theoretical frameworks. We suggest that bringing together work from the neighbouring disciplines of public administration and organization studies may improve our understanding of public services hybridity and outline a future research agenda.

Instilling Public Service Values and Professionalism through Information Literacy

In order for public affairs and administration education programs to successfully prepare future public administrators, the link between public service values (PSVs), professionalism in the public sector, and information literacy (IL) needs to be acknowledged and elevated. Through the development of a Communications for Public Administrators course focused on IL with a public service perspective, the Master of Public Administration (MPA) program at West Chester University (WCU) is attempting to do just that. This article considers separately the role of PSVs, professionalism, and IL in the study and practice of public administration and discusses the rationale for linking the three concepts in public affairs and administration education programs. Recommendations for the institutionalization of the PSVs-professionalism-IL nexus are also considered. The article then describes a specific WCU MPA course used to explore the efficacy of integrating PSVs, professionalism, and IL into a graduate public affairs curriculum. The benefits of this approach and its applicability to other public administration, public policy, and public affairs graduate programs are discussed.

Public Management Research and a Three Qualitative Research Strategy

The study of public administration and management requires scientific steps, because of the philosophical views of research as scientific process that lies on ontology, epistemology, and methodology. The qualitative method is a major aspect of public management research, which also has been criticized from different perspectives; especially, in relations to its characteristics (proximity to quantitative method, determinism, finding actual causation, objectivism etc.). The main purpose of this article therefore, is to discuss the basic scientific steps in public management research and to focus on literature review, interview, and documentary analysis as qualitative strategies in data collection, analysis, and interpretation in public management research for especially young researchers and also old researchers in this unique field. In addition, this paper tries to contribute to the views that the qualitative method is still one suitable method for public management research and different strategies could be adopted in one research task through the mixed method.

The Great Masters of Public Administration: Von Justi, Von Stein, Bonnin and GonzaaLez

Pubic administration, like other disciplines, has great thinkers whose contributions are the foundation of scientific development. They are the leaders and masters of the field. During the 18th century, Johann Heinrich von Justi studied the “police”, preceding the first studies in public administration that would be pioneered by by Lorenz von Stein (Germany) and Charles-Jean Bonnin (France) one century later. Stein developed an administrative version of the rule of law in the 19th century. On the other hand, inspired by the French Revolution and Napoleon’s Empire, Bonnin created the modern concept of public administration. During the same period, Florentino Gonzalez, a notable Colombian intellectual, wrote the first book on public administration in a Republican. In this paper I study the contributions of these great masters of public administration.

Addressing the Challenges of Adaptation to Climate Change Policy: Integrating Public Administration and Public Policy Studies

With growing attention on formulating the “right” policies and programs to address climate change, the contribution that policy work will make in fostering adaptive capacity needs to be examined. Policy capacity is crucial to policy formulation and should be at the heart of climate mainstreaming. There are six hypotheses about the nature of climate-based policy work based on a survey conducted of Canadian federal and provincial government employees in the forestry, finance, infrastructure, and transportation sectors. To measure the simultaneous effects on perceived policy capacity, an Ordinary Least Squares regression was conducted. Among the key findings was that the increased demand for climate change science within an organization resulted in a decreased perception of policy capacity. Policy work was largely focused on procedure activities rather than on evaluation. The model found that networking was critically important for perceived policy capacity. Effective policy formulation will involve the participation of others normally not associated with traditional policy work. Evidence-based policy work illustrates that policy success can be achieved by improving the amount and type of information processed in public policy formulation.

Governance a Latin America perspective

Governance has gained increasing prominence, not only among public policy and administration studies, but also among practitioners. The interest in governance reflects that in our contemporary soci...

Local Government Capacity and Citizen Co-production: A Review of Theory and Evidence

AbstractGovernment capacity is an important topic in the study of public administration (Burgess 1975; Honadle 1981). The terms capacity, capability or ability have become a concern of government agencies because of the need to develop policies and programs (Gargan 1981). More recently failures of public programs and the increasing demands of the public have also brought attention to this important topic (Ingraham 2003; Andrews and Boyne 2010). Despite the common use of capacity, the term is not well defined in the current public administration literature. In this paper the focus is upon the implementation capacity in local government. They are largely responsible for service delivery, whereas higher levels of government are more removed and have coordination and policy development responsibilities. In this study, the researcher undertakes a comprehensive approach to investigate what is currently known about government capacity by integrating the empirical research that has been published in the past fifty years. It reviews 43 articles that rigorously discuss capacity or capacity building at the local level and 62 articles on citizen co-production. The analysis suggests that government capacity only perceived within organizations is limited. The majority of attention has been paid to management capacity particularly policy formulation capacity, leaving implementation capacity less touched. Sub-analyses reveal different dimensions of government capacity which are dominantly studied in western literature. The evidence points to an association between government capacity and citizen co-production. This paper enriches the literature by developing a new relationship of government capacity and citizen co-production at the local level.

Still Like Ships That Pass in the Night? The Relationship Between Public Administration and Management Studies

ABSTRACTIn recent times, research on public management has grown rapidly. Nevertheless, despite the expansion of attention to management in the public sector, many important questions about the state of public administration research remain unanswered. One of the most salient of these questions concerns the relationship between public administration and generic management research. In particular, to what extent, and in what ways, is public administration research connected with developments in mainstream management and organization studies. In this article, we use bibliographic methods to explore the place of the generic management literature within the intellectual structure of public administration. Our findings suggest that the influence of generic management theories on certain public administration journals and scholars has grown in recent years, although management scholars appear to be uninterested in public administration articles. Further analysis of the subject matter in published articles is suggestive of the possibility that the emergence of the “New Public Management” has played an important role in re-shaping the connections between the two fields of study.