From public action to public administration: where does it lead?

Minnowbrook I and Minnowbrook II differ in one important way. Minnowbrook I involved mostly scholars who came to the field primarily through formal academic training. Several of those who participated in Minnowbrook II are products of comrnunity-based applied revisions of so-called new public administration in the 1960s. Radin served as a union employee and then a staff member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Cooper worked as a minister at several inner-city churches. Both Radin and Cooper took their doctorates later in their careers, after extensive street level experience. From this perspective they focus on the unique political setting of public administration, on the field's publicness, on the salience of theories of change, on a process perspective, and on “soft” research methodologies.

Through much of its history, the field of public administration in the United States has been punctuated by figures who moved from the arena of action to opportunities for reflection, either through writing or teaching or both. A review of the literature of the field up to the 1960s provides strong evidence of this pattern and is particularly illustrated by two important eras of public administration—the municipal reform period and the post-New Deal period.⁽¹⁾ The decade of he 1960s was one of the few periods of the twentieth century in which action was not the predominant pathway to concern about administrative issues. In contrast to this earlier pattern, the generation of public administration academics in the 1960s focused on writing and teaching as a goal unto itself, rather than as a way of searching for the meaning of action in which one was previously engaged.

Indeed, the original group of participants in the Minnowbrook conference came to the field of public administration through formal academic training; their quest for values, relevancy, and meaning developed as they looked out of the windows of the academy to the turbulent society of which they were a part.⁽²⁾

While some were on the inside looking out during the 1960s, others were attempting to define meaning and relevancy within the world of action rather than the world of the academy. This paper is an attempt to explore the influence of that action experience on the public administration field. The authors of this paper spent the 1960s engaged in a part of the social action that spawned the “new” public administration movement.

We believe that our involvements in the 1960s led to the development of perspectives on public administration which are somewhat different from those of individuals who were primarily involved in academe during those turbulent times. This paper begins with a short autobiographical account which provides the personal context for our perspectives. It then contrasts our views with those of the Minnowbrook group and focuses on those elements that make up our perspective on the field.     

“Internationalizing the curriculum:” challenges to public administration

It is tempting to “internationalize the curriculum” in professional graduate programs by adding courses and units that deal with strategies to improve the international competitive position of the United States. The study considers three strategies for dealing more credibly with international and global issues. The more difficult and challenging are those that attempt to incorporate multi- and interdisciplinary activities. The study describes several topics with global implications that would benefit from interdisciplinary study. In the meantime, the traditional perspective of Public Administration is not very relevant to global concerns because of the close connection to nation-states and hierarchical organizations. There are, however, a number of trends in the field that could enhance its ability to contribute to a global perspective such as a growing attention to new institutional arrangements, more emphasis on consultations rather than regulatory controls, and more interest in the role of managers.     

In search of a public administration paradigm: is there anything to be learned from islamic public administration?

The intent of this work is to investigate and explore an alternative paradigm in public administration as the next millennium approaches. It provides an analysis of basic premises and principles of Islamic public administration through delineating the meta-values of Islam. These values dominate the philosophical underpinning of the paradigm and provide direction for the functioning of public institutions. This study also examines the practicality and feasibility of Islamic public administration (IPA) and its contribution to the present public administration discipline. It concludes with an evaluation of the viability of IPA as a future model in developmental public administration, especially in countries with a predominately Islamic culture.     

Teaching the “introduction to public administration” course from a generic perspective: putting business and public administration undergraduates in the same classroom

A “generic” oriented management course was developed for business and public administration majors. A study was completed to determine the effects of learning generic management principles with 48 college students. Results indicate that generic learning can be fostered without adversely affecting the learning of management principles specific to either business or public administration. Similar generic learning did not take place in a control group consisting of 39 students. A discussion of generic management and implications for further study are offered.     

Public administration reform and the “new managerialism”: a comparative assessment of a fundamental challenge confronting canadian public administration

The “new managerialism” is becoming the new ortodoxy in public administration. It has challenged the classic assumptions about the nature of bureaucracy in democratic countries. However, it has not implied a great deal of serious debate. In Canada, it is challenging the model of constitutional bureaucracy around which public administration has been organized. Such a model involves two main principles: the ministerial Department and a neutral career public service. The former has meant that power flow in downward and responsibility and accountability upward (to the elected state authorities). The latter that, among other things, officials enjoy security of tenure in exchange for their willingness to serve governments of all partisan affiliations with equal loyalty and effectiveness. The new managerialism challenges both principles since it proposes to diffuse authority both horizontally and vertically, make accountabi1;ty run downward to “clients” and be more capable to substitute personell according to the needs of the moment. Since the new managerialism involves serious risks, the author ends up asking whether these two contending paradigms can or should be reconcilied, and warning not to overlook the past histories of Canadian and Western administrative and political institutions.     

Do Citizens really care about federalism? public preferences for the administration of governmental programs

In this paper we present a secondary analysis of a survey of Alabama residents. The focus of that survey was individual attitudes toward a variety of policy areas, five of which could reasonably be administered at either the state or national level. Rather than simply asking what level of government should have responsibility, we asked respondents to construct national and state budgets which might, or might not, include appropriations for these and other policy areas. In general, individuals allocated funds to each policy area at both the state and national level. This means either that most citizens favor cooperative federalism, or more likely, people are primarily interested in seeing that certain programs are funded and do not much care what level of government administers a policy area. This latter interpretation is supported by the fact that no theory taken from the current fed-eralism literature is able to explain individual attitudes toward federalism as measured by these budget allocations. Most people simply do not have very strong feelings about which level of government should be responsible for any given program.     

Occupations and wages — the case of public administration in Britain’

Both local authorities and central government (represented by the Department of the Environment, DoE) have responded to the pressures affecting the role of the council sector in the British housing system by attempting to develop new strategies aimed at management and maintenance. This paper assesses the stimuli which have led to the creation of one such initiative, Estate Action (EA). It also seeks to evaluate the extent to which EA has fulfilled its stated remit of helping authorities to innovate in order to revitalize run‐down council estates. It is argued that conflicting pressures within EA operate not only to limit some of its effects, but also create substantial difficulties for local authorities.     

Search for identity: the impact of the “great books” in public administration

Do public administration scholars build upon seminal works by scholars in the field or do they still rely heavily upon other disciplines? This question is addressed by assessing the impact of the “great books” in public administration on research published in academic journals. It is found that the 1980's are characterized by an increasing importance of those classic books that are generic management in orientation, suggesting that scholars still rely heavily on other fields for theoretical direction. Implications for an interdisciplinary approach to public administration and the training of doctoral students is discussed.     

How much is an MPA worth? public administration education and federal career success

Using a one percent sample of federal personnel records, this paper compares the grades, salaries, job authority, and occupations of MPA-holders to those of federal employees with graduate degrees in business administration, law, the social sciences, and other fields. Even after the race, sex, experience, age, and educational levels of employees have been accounted for, a graduate degree in PA appears to increase career success more than most graduate education and at least as much as an MBA degree. PA programs remain a minor source of managerial personnel, however, and may become less important as competition with business and law schools increases.     

Philanthrocapitalism: rendering the public domain obsolete?

Engaging the lively debates about the next expression of neoliberalism, this study suggests that it is evolving into philanthrocapitalism. After a brief discussion of the trajectories from neoliberalism, the article addresses the core ideology of philanthrocapitalism. The central thesis explores how philanthrocapitalism is moving beyond the requirement of ‘business practices’ for recipients of donor funds, into enforcing ‘business rule’ on to the public domain. Although philanthrocapitalism is most debated in the fields of health care and education, this article uses empirical analysis of international agricultural policies trying to enlist Southern Africa policies. It explores how philanthrocapitalist rule is reducing transparency, participation and deliberation within the public domain, well beyond requesting efficient business practices for greater food security. It concludes with how smallholder farmers are actively organising to resist business rule over their genetic resources and farming practices.     

Performance pledges–power to the consumer or a quagmire in public service legitimation?

One of the latest initiatives in Hong Kong's public sector reform is the launch of “performance pledges” in 1992, which have essentially been modelled on citizen's charters in the United Kingdom. While the stated aims of performance pledges, citizen's charters, or similar initiatives, are to raise the standard of public services and to make such services answer better to the needs of ordinary people, hence “empowering” the public service consumers, this latest consumerist trend in public management has more far-reaching implications, both in terms of the organization as well as the legitimation of public service provision. This article examines such implications, with specific reference to the Hong Kong situation, and argues that the outcome of the development seems to point to the empowerment of public managers rather than the consumers as the official rhetoric would imply.     

Organisational choices in public procurement: what can public management learn from the private sector?

ABSTRACT

In the public context, the efficient and effective management of procurement activities has a crucial impact on the achievement of operational and broader government objectives. In particular, the potential contribution of procurement within local governments has been broadly recognized, and organisational procurement choices represent a strategic aspect that must be managed to contribute to these objectives. Through the analysis of data on 371 Italian municipalities, this paper discusses how to design procurement organisation variables for local governments. Three possible organisational models are identified (i.e., authoritative procurement, silo procurement, and local procurement) and discussed from the perspective of internal and external contingencies that may affect organisational decisions.     

From nuclear imperialism to petro-democracy? Resource assemblages and the emergence of a new political configuration in Niger

The rentier state and resource curse concepts understand oil and uranium as fixed resources generating economic rents. In doing so, these theories largely ignore the social, economic, political and technological arrangements essential for a material substance like oil or uranium to become a resource. By comparing the diachronic and synchronic entanglements of the different socio-technical arrangements of oil and uranium in Niger, the assumption of the resource curse and rentier state theories, that resource revenues foster authoritarian tendencies, is revisited. Exploring the concept of resource assemblages, this article analyzes how political configurations are related to the process of resource exploitation. This perspective reveals that a new resource-political configuration in Niger has emerged since the beginning of oil production. Whereas Niger’s uranium-political configuration has long been characterized by a neocolonial discursive formation, the emerging petro-political configuration has produced a new resource nationalism in public opinion and governance which is transforming politics in Niger.