Book Reviews

Book Reveiwed in this article
Analysis for Public Decisions E. S. Quade
American Public Administration: Past, Present, Future Frederick C. Mosher, (ed.)
Public Administration and Public Afairs Nicholas Henry
British Government 1966–1975: Tears of Reform Frank Stacey
Regional Planning and Social Change David Gillingwater
The Mandarins of Western Europe Edited by Mattei Dogan.
The Land and the Development; or, the Turmoil and the Torment Sir Desmond Heap, Stevens
The Reform of Planning Law Neal Alison Roberts
Linked Research Project into Public Participation in Structure Planning, Interim Papers 1–9* William Hampton and others.
Education Policy Making: A Study of Interest Groups and Parliament Maurice Kogan
The Power of the Purse: The Role of European Parliaments in Budgetary Decisions David Coombes et al.     

Public Administration in Belgium, the UK and Eire: a Review Symposium

Teaching Public Administration in Belgium , Jan Beyers and Yves Plees
The Teaching of Public Administration in the UK , Chris Bellamy
Teaching Public Administration in Ireland , Bernadette Connaughton
Regionalism: a Review Article , Martin Rhodes
Shrinking the State. The Political Underpinnings of Privatization , Harvey Feigenbaum, Jeffrey Henig and Chris Hamnett
Public Policy Instruments. Evaluating the Tools of Public Administration , B. Guy Peters and Frans K.M. van Nispen
Carrots, Sticks and Sermons. Policy Instruments and their Evaluation , Marie-Louise Bemelmans-Videc, Ray C. Rist and Evert Vedung
Community Organizing. Building Social Capital as a Development Strategy , Ross Gittell and Avis Vidall
Deregulation in the European Union: Environmental Perspectives , Ute Collier
New Instruments for Environmental Policy , Jonathan Golub
Re-imagining Political Community , Daniele Archibugi, David Held and Martin Köhler     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book review in this Article Asian Bureaucratic Systems Emergent from the British Imperial Tradiation Edited by Ralph Braibanti. Party Politics in English Local Government By J.G. Bulpitt. When Americans Complain: Governmental Grievance Procedures By Walter Gellhorn. Parliament and Administration: The Estimates Committee 1945–65 By Nevil Johnson. Financial Committees of the Indian Parliament: A Study in Parliamentary Control over Public Expenditure By R.N. Aggarwala. Fayol on Administration By M.B. Brodie. Emerging Synthesis in American Public Administration By Keith M. Henderson. Organization for the Public Service By John D. Millett. D. van Nostrand Handbook of Training in the Public Service New York: United Nations, 1966. Private Interests and Public Policy: The Experience of the French Economic and Social Council By J.E.S. Hayward.     

Book Notes

Public Administration (Australia ), September, December, 1942; Journal of Public Administration (New Zealand ), September, 1942.     

Public Sector Reforms: New Public Management without Marketization? The Danish Case

Is it possible to imagine New Public Management without marketization? In Denmark the present liberal-conservative Government has, throughout its 10 years in power, designed and implemented more than 15 major management reforms in the public sector. Although most of the reforms are rhetorically firmly rooted in neo-liberal ideologies they have, in practice, promoted tools and mechanisms of the “traditional,” or Old, Public Management. Based on an empirical study of the reforms, we suggest that the notion of “pragmatic” New Public Management is introduced to enhance the current understanding of New Public Management in the Western industrialized societies.     

HOW NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT REFORMS CHALLENGE THE ROLES OF PROFESSIONALS

ABSTRACT

The article discusses the relationship between New Public Management reforms and professional roles in European countries. The author presents the traditional autonomous role of professionals and argues that this role is challenged in New Public Management reforms. Then the author looks more closely into the comparative European literature on New Public Management reforms to find general messages about the specific challenges for professionals. And the Danish way of implementing New Public Management reforms is introduced with a specific combination of decentralisation, managerialism and democratisation. Professionals are faced with all of these reform strategies and each of them raises important research questions in a study of reforms and roles. Finally the author presents the few European comparative studies on actual changes in professional role as a consequence of New Public Management reforms and the result is the upcoming of maybe a new interactive role and professional managers. The result calls for further studies into these new roles.     

REVIEWS

Mark R. Rutgers (ed.), Retracing Public Administration
Lester Salamon (ed.), The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New Governance
Michael Moran, The British Regulatory State: High Modernism and Hyper-Innovation
Maura Adshead and Michelle Millar (eds), Public Administration and Public Policy in Ireland: Theory and Methods
Colin Seymour-Ure, Prime Ministers and the Media: Issues of Power and Control
Karen Duke, Drugs, Prisons and Policy-Making
Bronwen Morgan, Social Citizenship in the Shadow of Competition: The Bureaucratic Politics of Regulatory Justification
Penny Leonard, Promoting Welfare: Government Information Policy and Social Citizenship
Nikolaos Zahariadis, Ambiguity and Choice in Public Policy: Political Decision Making in Modern Democracies
Bruce Bimber, Information and American Democracy: Technology in the Evolution of Political Power     

Reviews

John Stewart, Modernising British Local Government: an Assessment of Labour's Reform Programme Christopher Pollitt and Colin Talbot (eds), Unbundled Government: a Critical Analysis of the Global Trend to Agencies, Quangos and Contractualisation Paul Maltby, In the Public Interest? Assessing the Potential for Public Interest Companies Christopher Hood and B. Guy Peters with Grace O.M. Lee (eds), Reward for High Public Office. Asian and Pacific‐Rim States Stephen B. Johnson, The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space Programmes Michael Hill and Peter Hupe, Implementing Public Policy: Governance in Theory and Practice Peter John, Local Governance in Western Europe Robert Agranoff and Michael McGuire, Collaborative Public Management: New Strategies for Local Governments Martin Lodge, On Different Tracks: Designing Railway Regulation in Britain and Germany Anthony B.L. Cheung and Ian Scott (eds), Governance and Public Sector Reform in Asia: Paradigm Shifts or Business as Usual?     

Reviews

Our Towns: A Close-up By the Hygiene Committee of the Women's Group on Public Welfare. Oxford University Press. b Public Affairs Special issue. Dalhousie Universitys.     

Reviews

The Reform of the Public Health Services Sir Arthur S. Mac Nalty , K.C.B. Urban Planning and Public Opinion Administrative Regulation World Order in Historical Perspective By HANS KOHN Speeches and Documents in American History     

Saff professional competency strategy: a call for action

Staff units, e.g., budget offices, can be improved. This article recommends a comprehensive macro strategy to improve professional competency of Public Administration staff units. This represents a call for action among the Public Administration community.     

Power and Public Chambers in the development of civil society in Russia

Embodying a state vision of how civil society ought to function and be designed by the authorities, Public Chambers in Russia have been criticized as means of state control. This state dominance is the starting point in this article, which asks what room to manoeuvre a regional Public Chamber has. Drawing upon fieldwork this article examines how members and local observers of the Public Chamber give meaning to this activity. The analysis assesses the role of state dominance, discussion of routines and responses to local demands, and concludes that these incremental developments form civil society in Russia.     

Public Administration in Belgium,the UK and Eire: a Review Symposium

Teaching Public Administration in Belgium, Jan Beyers and Yves Plees The Teaching of Public Administration in the UK, Chris Bellamy Teaching Public Administration in Ireland, Bernadette Connaughton Regionalism: a Review Article, Martin Rhodes Shrinking the State. The Political Underpinnings of Privatization , Harvey Feigenbaum, Jeffrey Henig and Chris Hamnett Public Policy Instruments. Evaluating the Tools of Public Administration, B. Guy Peters and Frans K.M. van Nispen Carrots, Sticks and Sermons. Policy Instruments and their Evaluation, Marie-Louise Bemelmans-Videc, Ray C. Rist and Evert Vedung Community Organizing. Building Social Capital as a Development Strategy , Ross Gittell and Avis Vidall Deregulation in the European Union: Environmental Perspectives , Ute Collier New Instruments for Environmental Policy, Jonathan Golub Re-imagining Political Community, Daniele Archibugi, David Held and Martin Köhler     

Book Reviews

Book Reveiwed in this article
Implementation: The Problem of Achieving Results Edited by Gabriel U. Iglesias.
New Thinking for Malaysian Public Administration: Some Social Science and Behavioural Concepts, Theories and Operational Questions . Latheef N. Ahmed.
In Search of the Constitution Nevil Johnson.
Public Administration: Values, Policy and Change Robert H. Simmons and Eugene P. Dvorin.
L'Acteur et le Systeme Michel Crozier and Erhard Friedberg.
Open Government: The British Interpretation Ronald Wraith
Education and Politics: Policy Making in Local Education Authorities Robert E, Jennings
Treasury Control in Australia: A Study in Bureaucratic Politics Patrick Weller and James Cutt.
An Open Case: The Organizational Context of Social Work Joyce Warham.
Parliament arid the Public Libraries R. J. B. Morris.
Education and Training for Public Sector Management in Developing Countries Edited by Laurence D. Stifel, James S. Coleman and Joseph E. Black.     

Records Management: A Key Element for Effectiveness,Accountability and Development in the Greek Public Administration

Records management is a fundamental activity of public administration. Public records are a crucial component of the most human actions. They form the basis of any political and legal system and secure human rights. Records Management Systems provide information for planning and decision making, promote the government accountability, improve servicing citizens and ensure the organizations' enactments legitimacy. This article presents and evaluates the records management practices of the core Greek Public Administration by conducting a survey concerning the Greek Ministries and trying to find out in what level the records management initiatives are embedded in the business culture and applied by the Greek Public Agencies.     

In search of the new public management

Managing the New Public Services. Edited by David Farnham and Sylvia Horton. Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1993. Pp. 282. £35 hb, £11.99 pb.

Rediscovering Public Services Management. Edited by Leslie Willcocks and Jenny Harrow. McGraw‐Hill, London, 1992. Pp. 341. £18.95 pb.

Not For Profit, Not For Sale ‐ The Challenge of Public Sector Management. By Michael Starks. Policy Journals, Newbury, 1991. Pp. 168. £25 hb, £9.95 pb.

Public Sector Management. By Norman Flynn. 2nd edition, Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead, 1993. Pp. 203. £29.95 hb, £10.95 pb.     

Information technology and organizational structure of the greek public administration

It is widely accepted in the management literature that Information Technology can greatly contribute to the administrative modernization and especially to the improvement of organizational productivity. This is of great interest for the Greek Public Administration, which faces long term problems of low productivity. The main objective of this work is to analyse the impact of Information Technology on the organizational structure of Greek Public Administration, that is one of the main determinants of its productivity. Initially the theoretical background is presented on which the present work is based. Using data compiled from the whole Central Government, firstly the study is focused on the hardware and software technologies which are employed. At a second stage the impact of the use of Information Technology on a set of dimensions of the organizational structure,which are of critical importance for the productivity of the Greek Public Administration, is examined. The conclusions of the study provide the basis for the development of strategic guidelines for maximizing the benefits from using Information Technology in Greek Public Administration.     

Public management: first approximations

Public Management as a synthesis of business management and public administration confronts some severe conceptual problems that are rooted in the dissimilarities between business and government. In the two books reviewed, the authors attempt to build concep- tual frameworks for studying public management which minimize the importance of many of these differences. As a result, both books come closer to meeting the expanding market for texts which present management tools and techniques than most of the other texts written in the past few years using a “Public A.dministration as Political Science” approach. Nevertheless, both books still fall considerably short of providing a coherent and comprehensive solution to the problem of defining the scope and substance of the field of Public Management. Therefore, Public Management, as presented in these books, remains largely a truncated field of study limited to issuestof internal management control and ,cost effectiveness. For the field to flourish, it must find a way to bridge and dissolve the dichotomies between politics and administration, policy and management, and political and technical rationality.     

Historical change and the administrative state: An analysis of the theoretical foundations of public administration

This article offers an explanation for the theoretical underdevelopment of Public Administration. It argues that Public Administration studies the relations among elements of the administrative state and between the administrative state and its environment dissociated from time. The ahistorical orientation of the discipline has drastically reduced its capacity for theory building.     

Public Administration Education and Europeanization: Prospects for the Emancipation of a Discipline?

The twin processes of Europeanization and Transition provide significant opportunities for the development of Public Administration education in Europe and provide a possibility to further the 'emancipation' of the discipline. In terms of Europeanization, the increasing challenges of politico-administrative interaction between national administrations and the institutions of the European Union illustrate that it is essential for Public Administration graduates to acquire an informed understanding of both the European context of policy-making and of the administrative organization and culture of other member states and countries associated with the EU. As a second element, the transition process in Central and Eastern European states could provide the discipline with further impetus to search for its own identity and approach in a European context. This article reviews the key findings of the results of the comprehensive inventories undertaken by the SOCRATES Thematic Network in Public Administration with regard to the current direction in which Public Administration education in Europe is moving. It addresses whether attention to European issues is reflected in the curriculum as well as links with the profession and whether cross-fertilization between the development of new programmes in the transition states and PA academic programmes in the EU member states has actually occurred.