Public Management and Administration: a Need for Evolution

Recently, British public management has relied too much on private sector approaches suited to market‐facing situations, to the detriment of systems based on a realistic estimate of the special nature of public business, and its needs for economy and co‐ordination. Accountability processes have suffered from over‐simplification (targetry) and from a gross multiplication of mechanisms focusing on individual error, as opposed to ensuring intelligent assessment of business results. There has been an over‐emphasis on management of inputs and outputs, as opposed to systems gearing the result‐producing mechanisms to means for policy formation and co‐ordination of effort. We need now to re‐think and define properly the systems whereby ministers are advised, account is rendered, resources are allocated and effort is co‐ordinated—and the qualifications of the relevant actors. Suggestions are made to these ends.     

Examining the Evolution of the Field of Public Administration through a Bibliometric Analysis of Public Administration Review

In 2015, Public Administration Review celebrated its 75th year of publication. For this milestone, the PAR Editorial Board selected the 75 most influential articles in the history of the journal and invited scholars to “revisit a selection of these articles” in order “to take stock of what these articles meant for the field.” Bibliometrics offers a complementary view of the history of a discipline and the evolution of its research and practice agendas through an analysis of its published literature. This article examines the changes over time in PAR from 1940 through 2013 in authorship: contributions, impact, gender composition, institutional and national affiliation, profession as scholar or practitioner, collaboration networks, and the status of the 75 influential articles. Through an extensive quantitative analysis of scholarly production, this article demonstrates PAR’s centrality to the discipline of public administration and its bridging role between public administration and political science.     

新时代公共管理实现途径的多元化演变分析

关于公共管理实现途径的研究,学者们进行诸多探讨后提出管理、政治、法律等实现途径。然而,随着信息化、后工业化、全球化的发展,我国社会呈现高度的复杂性与不确定性,社会主要矛盾发生变化。这些途径在新时代公共治理中存在解释力不足、整体功能没有得到优化等问题,未能说明行政体制改革过程中真实的行为逻辑,对高度复杂性条件下一些公共问题也很难给出有效的应对方案,亟须调适和建立符合我国实际情况的新实现路径。通过对公共管理实现途径价值和观点的梳理,以天津、杭州等地方行政体制改革实践为分析样本,进行多案例研究,分析新一轮政府流程再造中公共管理多种实现途径演变、合流,并用系统性的视角、协同性的思维和综合化的方式,探索具有中国特色的、科学系统的新时代公共管理实现途径。     

Behavioral Public Administration: Combining Insights from Public Administration and Psychology

Behavioral public administration is the analysis of public administration from the micro‐level perspective of individual behavior and attitudes by drawing on insights from psychology on the behavior of individuals and groups. The authors discuss how scholars in public administration currently draw on theories and methods from psychology and related fields and point to research in public administration that could benefit from further integration. An analysis of public administration topics through a psychological lens can be useful to confirm, add nuance to, or extend classical public administration theories. As such, behavioral public administration complements traditional public administration. Furthermore, it could be a two‐way street for psychologists who want to test the external validity of their theories in a political‐administrative setting. Finally, four principles are proposed to narrow the gap between public administration and psychology.     

Reputation and Public Administration

This article examines the application of organizational reputation to public administration. Organizational reputation is defined as a set of beliefs about an organization’s capacities, intentions, history, and mission that are embedded in a network of multiple audiences. The authors assert that the way in which organizational reputations are formed and subsequently cultivated is fundamental to understanding the role of public administration in a democracy. A review of the basic assumptions and empirical work on organizational reputation in the public sector identifies a series of stylized facts that extends our understanding of the functioning of public agencies. In particular, the authors examine the relationship between organizational reputation and bureaucratic autonomy.     

从价值观维度审视西方公共行政范式的演进

从价值观维度来看,公共行政范式演进是在"效率"与"民主"这两大价值观之间进行取舍或者相互博弈进而衍生出来的一系列管理理念、管理技术和管理手段的集合.传统公共行政范式恪守"效率至上"价值观,将行政领域定位为技术性的管理过程,导致民主价值观缺位.新公共行政范式把"社会公平"添置为公共行政的第三块基石,将民主置于与效率和经济同等的地位,并力图通过分权、权力下放、责任扩大和顾客介入等途径彰显政府的民主蕴涵.新公共管理范式对"效率"价值进行了扬弃,强化了政府价值观的"效能"理念;然而,该范式倡导的掌舵型政府、政府职能市场化、企业家精神和顾客导向等改革理念在事实上造成了民主价值观的流失.     

公共领域与公共精神的关系演变

自古及今,公共领域与公共精神都是既相互联系又相辅相成的关系。在封建社会,公共领域的缺失导致公共精神的压抑与异化,公共精神沦为维护等级秩序的工具。在新中国成立后的一段时期内,公共领域对私人领域的越位导致公共精神的扩张与虚化,脱离于物质层面而沦为纯粹的"精神革命"。改革开放以来,伴随着社会结构的变化,现代公共领域健康发展,公共精神的现代意蕴得以彰显。     

Recovering the Craft of Public Administration

Public sector reform has rarely dropped off the political agenda of Western governments, yet the old craft skills of traditional public administration remain of paramount importance. The pendulum has swung too far toward the new and the fashionable reforms associated with New Public Management and the New Public Governance. It needs to swing back toward bureaucracy and the traditional skills of bureaucrats as part of the repertoire of governing. This article discusses the skills of counseling, stewardship, practical wisdom, probity, judgment, diplomacy, and political nous. Although these skills are of wide relevance, the article focuses on their relevance in Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand. It concludes that the next bout of reforms needs to recover the traditional craft skills. It is not a question of traditional skills versus the new skills of New Public Management or New Public Governance; it is a question of what works, of what skills fit in a particular context.     

混沌理论与公共行政

本旨在探讨运用混沌理论分析公共行政的必要性与可能性。公共组织的非线性、复杂性、不确定性和变动性特征表明，主流公共行政学的理论预设并不符合公共行政的实际。为此，运用主要研究系统的非线性特征的混沌理论来理解公共行政现象并解决公共行政问题，不仅可能，而且必需。混沌不仅为我们提供了研究公共行政的的视角，而且为公共行政的改革提供了理论基础。     

公共服务、公共管理与法国公共行政的现代化

本文基于胡德(Hood)的新公共管理思想和霍尔(Hall)与赖特(Wright)的新历史制度主义观点,分析了法国最近的几次改革及其相关理念,认为如果不同的政府都采用私营部门的管理方法来解决相似的问题,那么,改革的具体内容则依每个国家自身的环境,或先天条件而定.