Public administration and policymaking: The political/career executive environment

Federal government policymaking is improved by the partici-pation of career executives. As a minimum, contributions based on their professional expertise and institutional experience can serve as an early warning system for helping political executives to avoid mistakes in new policy ventures. However, a number of political, structural, and attitudinal factors cause the political/career executive relationship environment to be characteristically stressful, tense, and frequently not conducive to joint involvement in policymaking. Historic factors producing this environment include basic constitutional and democratic values regarding the exercise of unitary power, the ambiguous roles of political and career executives, the controversial executive workforce structure, and the differing orientations of career and non-career executives. More recent obstacles to developing a cooperative state of political/career relations consist of the rise of the administrative presidency accompanied by bureaucrat-bashing, an increased politicization of management, and the trend toward ideological administration. What has been termed the “quiet crisis” in public service has led to calls for change in presidential rhetoric, development of orientation and communication opportunities in the political/career relationship, and proposals of structural alternatives to the present executive workforce system established in 1978. The Bush administration has implemented several measures leading to a renewed recognition of the benefits to policymaking output of career executive involvement.     

Policy making/implementing activities of elected county executives and appointed county administrators: Does form of government make a difference?

This article undertakes a comparative analysis of the policy making/implementing behavior of elected county executives and appointed county administrators. While both sets of actors are engaged considerably in the policy making and implementing processes, the manner in which they undertake these activities varies, suggesting that form of government and method of (s)election do make a difference in how counties are governed.     

Public executives: Actualization and conflict approaches

This study represents a test of Maslow's hypotheses that the management styles of self-actualized executives differ from those of less-actualized executives. The sample was drawn from among executives of seven state governments. The correlation of levels of actualization and executive behavior revealed that the more self-actualized executives were more willing to actively lobby for their decisional preferences than to simply accept decisions from superiors.     

Responding to fiscal stress: Fiscal institutions and fiscal adjustment in four Brazilian states

Despite similar external shocks and pressures, Brazilian state leaders varied in the timing and the manner in which they adjusted to fiscal stress. Some state leaders rapidly switched to market-oriented strategies that cut public intervention in the economy. Other state leaders delayed adjustment, and when they finally put their accounts in order it was through market-governing strategies that preserved government activism. In part, these different fiscal policy regimes were products of the decision-making process in which chief executives operated. In states where budgeting obeyed a more open and democratic pattern, chief executives lacked autonomy and were forced to build coalitions to adjust. This meant that they adjusted more slowly and their adjustment strategies included appeals to broad interests, including those seeking protection from market pressures. In states where budgeting was more autocratic, chief executives could act quickly and without building a coalition. The current project uses structured comparison to contrast adjustment patterns in two democratic-budgeting states and two autocratic-budgeting states. The link between budget institutions and adjustment strategy appears to hold regardless of the socioeconomic condition of the states and the political hue of the state leaders.     

Inter-Governmental Policy Implementation: State Inducements to Encourage Implementation at the Local Level

This article investigates how State departments can best equip Local government to implement State environmental protection legislation effectively. Research on joint implementation by the then New South Wales Environment Protection Authority and NSW Local government authorities is reviewed to explore inducements and constraints on intergovernmental policy implementation, including the multi-jurisdictional nature of policy.     

The county perspective on intergovernmental relations and government capacity

This analysis examines the issues of state and federal responsiveness and state and local government capacity from the perspective of county officials. Using data from a national survey of county administrators, elected executives, and commission chairpersons, the study finds that county officials are: (1) very confident of their own capacities to respond to local problems, but not as confident of local fiscal capacities; (2) very concerned about the responsiveness of state governments, particularly state legislatures, to local needs; and (3) not confident of the responsiveness of federal government to local needs either, but desirous of federal fiscal support. The assessments of state responsiveness appear related to state efforts to expand the policy making, taxing, and borrowing authority of their county governments.     

Inter-Jurisdictional Economic Development: A Political Institution Explanation for Policy Choice

This study examines the role of formal institutions and rules of government in the formation of joint venture agreements for economic development. Research suggests local governing arrangements play an influential role in the policy area of local economic development. This study presents an argument that form of government provides incentives that influence the decision to establish a developmental, redistributive, or regional interjurisdictional agreement. The results of a multinomial logit model using survey data collected from 12 metropolitan areas provides evidence to support the hypotheses that unreformed governing institutions, compared to cities with an appointed professional manager, are more likely to form joint venture agreements that are developmental in nature.     

Turf wars in government administration: Interdepartmental cooperation in the European Commission

One challenge for government administration is to reap the benefits of specialization while minimizing its negative side effects. In this article, I study the factors that motivate departments to contribute to the joint formulation of public policies. I derive testable hypotheses that discriminate between two competing motivations for interdepartmental cooperation. If department managers are concerned for the quality of public policy, I expect cooperation to be efficient. If, by contrast, departments compete for administrative turf, I expect cooperation to be inefficient and resources to be wasted. I test those hypotheses by studying all policy proposals adopted and published by the European Commission between 2015 and 2017—a total of approximately 4,000 cases. For politically salient proposals, I find that departments are more likely to contribute if they expect competing departments to become active, too. By contrast, the preparation of technical, non-salient proposals is left to the most specialized departments. Overall, my findings suggest that interdepartmental cooperation in the European Commission is significantly motivated by DGs' competition for administrative turf.     

Measuring the Impact of New Public Management and European Integration on Recruitment and Training int he UK Civil Service

This article investigates the impact which the institutional development of the European Union (EU) and the new public management (NPM) have had on the process of recruitment and training of senior public officials in the United Kingdom between 1970 and 1995. Information provided by directors of personnel and training has enabled the extent of change observed in three government departments – Agriculture, Transport and Health – to be measured on a numerical scale. This is combined with a historical analysis rooted in practitioner experience. The evidence from both sources suggests that whereas NPM pressures have had a relatively similar impact on recruitment and training practices in all three departments, the response to EU pressure is much stronger in the Ministry of Agriculture than in the Departments of Transport and Health. The EU impact in Agriculture is particularly strong in respect of recruitment and career progression, the only area and the only department in which our index suggests that policy has been more heavily influenced by European pressures than by NPM. These findings reflect the strength of the political commitment to NPM and the power of the central departments in imposing it across Whitehall; and in the case of Agriculture the development of a cadre of senior officials who have almost all had experience of working in or with the EU institutions.     

Recent state initiatives: The governor as policy leader; the governor as chief administrator

Innovative accomplishments of governors are a vehicle for analyzing state governors' performance as policy leaders and as chief executives. Analysis of survey data describing state innovations reveals governors fostering an almost even mix of programs (initiatives directly serving clienteles) and administrative innovations (changes in internal procedures), with innovations tending to be reported from agencies where the governor is involved in selection of the agency head. The implications are that governors interested in instituting and institutionalizing innovation can do so through their appointments and that the appointive power can be a vehicle for change as well as control. Program initiatives tended to concentrate in various functional policy areas, such as economic development or education. Management innovations, on the other hand, tended to be system wide in that they were reported in agencies that serve the entire state bureaucracy or they emanated from the governor's office.1     

The leadership environment of public sector executives

Olshfski uses critical incident methodology to describe the leadership environment of state cabinet officials. The rich data set offers insight into how state executives (1) learn about their jobs, (2) exercise discretion to determine their policy agenda, and (3) operate in the political environment of state administration. She concludes by pointing out discrepancies in our understanding of leadership and offers suggestions for leadership, research, and teaching.

Somerset Maugham is said to have begun all his lectures by saying there are only three things that one must know in order to be a good writer: the only problem being that no one knows what those three things are. The same might be said of leadership research. For example, Stogdill's survey of leadership research contains over 3,000 references and Bass's revision documents over 5,000 references.⁽¹⁾ The preface to Stogdill's survey assesses the status of leadership research: “four decades of research on leadership have produced a bewildering mass of findings…. The endless accumulation of empirical data has not produced an integrated understanding of leadership. “⁽²⁾ A more pithy evaluation is offered by Bennis and Nanus, “never have so many labored so long to say so little.”⁽³⁾ Yet, most people still vigorously believe in the importance of the leader and leadership research.⁽⁴⁾

Recognizing the confusion in the field of leadership research, this study attempts to describe the context within which public executives operate. It is assumed that the executive's operating environment determines the extent to which leadership is possible. Critical incident methodology is used to illustrate how public sector executives conceptualize their environment and how they operate based on that conceptualization. This research is driven by two questions: What is the leadership environment of the state cabinet executive? Secondly, how does the leadership literature facilitate the understanding and interpretation of executive leadership in the public sector?     

Disaster evacuation responses by tourists and other types of transients

When disaster strikes and people are away from home, how do they respond? Based on interviews with 827 transients, lodging firm executives, and community officials following five major disasters, this article provides answers to three questions: 1) how did the modal evacuation patterns among these transients differ from those documented for residential populations?; 2) what were the major pattern differences among four types of transients (i.e., tourists, business travelers, migrant workers and homeless persons)?; and 3) what key policy issues were perceived by this transient population as the most important matters to which lodging firm executives and local government officials should seek solutions?     

THE ROLE OF POLITICIANS AND ADMINISTRATORS IN DEPARTMENTAL REORGANIZATION: THE CASE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT

This article examines the history of the Department of the Environment from its creation in 1970 to the formation of the Department of Transport in 1976. Its main approach is an analysis of the roles of the Permanent Secretary and the Secretary of State in the development of the organization. The strong organizational relationship between these senior members of the department is an important factor in structural change both at the time of the initial reforms and throughout this period.
The influence of different personalities and their approaches to policy and management is considered as a determining factor in the evolution of the department. Additionally, the attempts at reorganization and reform are to be seen as largely developing within a traditional Whitehall framework, based on this relationship, which restricted its effectiveness.     

ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF DEPARTMENTAL CHIEF EXECUTIVES: PERSPECTIVES FROM NEW ZEALAND

This article examines the new approach to specifying and assessing the performance of departmental chief executives in New Zealand introduced in 1988 by the fourth Labour government (1984–1990). Drawing on the findings of a series of interviews with ministers, chief executives and other senior public servants conducted between late 1989 and late 1991 by a number of researchers, the article outlines the origins and implementation of the new policy framework, and evaluates its strengths and weaknesses. From the evidence available to date, it appears that the new model has won the support of most of the parties directly affected, and that it has enhanced the accountability of chief executives to their portfolio minister(s). However, the implementation of the new regime has highlighted the inherent problems of assessing the performance of senior personnel in the public sector and of imposing sanctions in the event of substandard performance. In addition, various issues of a constitutional nature have arisen concerning the roles and responsibilities of chief executives, the balance of power between chief executives and their portfolio minister(s), and the proper role of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in the new accountability framework.     

Limits of regulatory governance change in the post-developmental state: Korean telecommunications market restructurings from a comparative perspective

This study explains the limits of institutional transformation in Korea from the developmental state to a post-developmental state, in terms of regulatory institutions instead of developmental institutions. The Korean state has taken advantage of the government's discretionary policy changes and power formed by both informal state institutions and informal policy networks, while the regulatory state has placed a special emphasis on social consensus as well as political support for changes of market institutions. New market rules and laws have also been inefficient and ineffective for fair market competition. Limits of regulatory governance change have occurred due to misalignments between informal regulatory institutions in the developmental state and formal regulatory institutions in the post-developmental state. State managers have created discretionary state intervention in policy implementation, politicized the roles of regulatory agencies, and brought ministry-type regulatory state institutions back in. The establishment of effective market institutions has failed due to informal market institutions (unfair and illegal market practices) that have interfered with the policy implementation of new formal market regulations.     

Meeting the challenge: state revenue raising

Recent trends in state tax revenue reveal that overall reliance of states on taxes have been declining for the last 43 years. Faced with reduction in tax revenues, states have restructured their tax systems to meet public demand for more services. State income taxes are the one type of tax that has risen consistently. What causes state policy makers to rely on this type of tax? This research addresses this question.     

Problems of Coordination in Field Administration in Bangladesh: Does Informal Communication Matter?

The main thrust of the article is to analyze the state of problems of inter-organizational coordination in the upazila (second tier of local government) in Bangladesh. It also explains to what extent informal communication matters for inter-organizational coordination. Based on empirical data collected in 2009, findings of the study suggest that a number of factors have facilitated non-existence of inter-organizational coordination at the upazila. These factors include lack of division of activities, dualism in control over officers, lack of proper functioning of the committees, and dual authority in disbursement of funds and its impact on timely disbursement. Findings also suggest that in the absence of coordination among different departments, informal communication has been observed to be one of the prominent mechanisms of ensuring coordination. However, existence of factors like lack of willingness to be engaged in informal communication and lack of cooperation has hindered the process of building informal communication among different departments. Despite having some problems this research has concluded that informal communication has helped the process of coordination among different departments while they are carrying out their responsibilities.     

Symposium: Professionalization and professionalism in public administration

The Symposium on Professionalization and Professionalism in Public Administration, contained in this volume of The International Journal of Public Administration, presents some of the most recent outlooks of prominent scholars and practitioners in the field. They have offered their research and insights into a subject of perennial importance. They have charted the significant progress being made in public administration toward its professional development. This collection of refereed articles is a survey updating the evolution of the field in this regard. Several features are noteworthy. First, the articles are arrayed from general to specific--that is, from theoretical presentations and overviews to case studies. Second, the case studies have been arranged from the federal level to sub-national jurisdictions. Third, the Symposium examines not only professional developments in public administration but also the mechanisms engendering and supporting such changes--namely, associations and formal higher education.

In addition to their other relationships, the articles also bear epistimological links to one another. A precis of these contributions makes this point evident. The first article, “Specifying Elements of Professionalism and the Process of Professionalization” by John J. Gargan, offers an interdisciplinary perspective on these two concepts. His coverage suggests that characteristics of a profession are no different for public administration than they are for other disciplines in the social sciences or in the natural sciences as well, although the seventh essay in this symposium challenges this perspective. Gargan posits that all professions, developed as well as evolving, concern themselves with three broad issues: (1) theory generation (the creation of basic knowledge and the formation, alteration, or replacement of paradigms); (2) theory translation and advocacy (the establishment of education processes); and (3) theory implementation and routinization (the applications of knowledge to human affairs through standardized practice). All three processes are concomitants of one another, and public administration has been no exception.

The second contribution, “Public Official Associations and Professionalism” by Jeremy F. Plant and David S. Arnold, develops the second and third issues presented in Gargan's essay. They focus on the roles of associations as illustrations of a genre of education processes and as vehicles for bringing a greater degree of homogeneity to the field of public administration. Furthermore, they postulate that, in seeking to fulfill these roles, associations have been moving toward convergence. Their typology stipulates the existence of two kinds of public administration associations: (1) professional-specialist and (2) political-generalist. The first type, made up of public servant careerists, including members of federal and state senior executive services, has been becoming more political whereas the second kind, consisting of elected political officials (especially governors, mayors, and legislators) has been proceeding in a managerial direction, regardless of party affiliation and ideology. Both types of organizations are melding since they have become increasingly symbiotic hybrids. The authors captured this trend when they commented: “As players in the policy arena, professional association and generalist, political associations are increasingly finding ways to work together.”

The third essay, “The Ideology of Professionalism in Public Administration: Implications for Education” by Curtis Ventriss, also extends Gargan's work but in a narrower way than the Plant-Arnold article. Ventriss focuses on theory translation and advocacy not from an associational standpoint but from the vista of higher education. He fears that the pedagogical regime for public administration is succeeding too well in professionalizing the field and in thus making it more valuable in serving the state. He argues that professionalism tends to constrain thought in the discipline so that it cannot readily conceive of purposes apart from such service. This alleged parochialism detracts from what Ventriss thinks the primary purpose of public administration ought to be: the inculcation of citizenship. Radically, he proposes an end to traditional public administration instructional programs but scattering their elements among other disciplines. He questions implicitly the distinction, going back to Woodrow Wilson, between techniques, which can be value neutral, and their applications, which can involve normative choices. Stated another way, he asks whether public administration can be made safe for democracy because he doubts but hopes, like Frederick Mosher, that universities can perform such a function.

The fourth article, “The Future of Professionalization and Professionalism in Public Administration: Advancements, Barriers, and Prospects” by the co-editors of this symposium, is the last presentation falling within the framework of Gargan's piece. Whereas Gargan sought to delineate the nature of professional status, Gazell and Pugh examine the extent to which the field has reached this long-sought goal. They explore six broad areas of advancement and an equal number of obstacles and conclude that, despite widespread popular animus toward governments at all levels, the prospects of the field are favorable, mainly because of an expanding public need for its services. The authors view professionalization (process) and professionalism (result) as fully compatible with the achievement of a genuinely democratic state. In fact, the authors see professional status for public administration as necessary for making representative governments effective enough either to survive or become more democratic. There is always a risk that professional development could eventually become an end in itself, threatening the achievement of a pervasive democratic order. Implicit in the article are the ideas that the nexus between effectiveness and democracy is curvilinear but that the quest for effectiveness through professionalism has not yet reached a point of diminishing returns--that is, threatening democratic evolution.

The fifth presentation, “Professionalizing the American States in the 1990s” by Beverly A. Cigler, is the first of a series of essays reporting on the progress of professionalism in government at various levels. The author furnishes an overview of professional developments in state governments throughout the nation. In particular, she meticulously catalogs efforts toward professionalism in the executive branches of such governments, although coverage of the judicial and legislative branches would be necessary for a complete picture. However, such an expansion would have taken her far beyond the scope of her article. Especially notable is her exploration of executive reorganizations, commissions on effectiveness, and multi-agency initiatives. She sums up a potpourri of efforts, often gubernatorially inspired and sustained, by remarking: “Collectively, the various activities pursued by the states have the potential to change what government does and how it operates.” She sees executive-branch professionalization and professionalism as steps toward revitalizing (or reinventing) government at the state level.

The sixth article, “Professionalization within a Traditional Political Culture: A Case Study of South Carolina” by Steven W. Hays and Bruce F. Duke, represents a specific example of what Cigler covers generally. Hays and Duke make at least three significant contributions. One is that they chronicle the earliest movements toward professionalism in a state, leading to the possibility that it has had similar origins in other jurisdictions at this level of government. A second contribution is that such change can take place despite a spate of systemic obstacles such as decentralized personnel systems, fragmented political authority, and an absence of gubernatorial support. A third feature is the presentation of an interstate model for measuring professional development, including such criteria as public management certification, graduate degrees, and formal ethical codes. Despite various structural problems the authors argue: “Considering the distance traveled and the obstacles overcome, there is no disputing the conclusion that tremendous progress has occurred over the past two decades [in South Carolina].”

The seventh study, “Professional Leadership in Local Government” by Ruth Hoogland DeHoog and Gordon P. Whitaker, presents an overview of professionalization and professionalism at the local level. What is novel here is the suggestion that professionalism at this level of government may be different than at other realms of government and than in the private sector. Broadly speaking, the primary difference is that professionalism in the public sector, especially in government, involves less autonomy because of greater accountability for appointed and elected officials. In particular, there are three salient distinctions: a respect for expertise on the part of elected officials, deference to their legitimacy and authority, and an additional acceptance of responsibility to the people at large (that is, the public interest). Also stressed is a greater role of ethics in professional development with a highlighting of the role of the International City Management Association's efforts to bring improvement in this area. For instance, the authors point out: “Managers must learn these values through professional education, professional association contacts, and work with other professionals in local government.”

The eighth article in this symposium, “The Possibility of Professionalism in County Management” by James H. Svara, complements the DeHoog-Whitaker essay by providing a case study focusing on local public management in one state: North Carolina. Svara interviewed a cross-section of county executives and concerned himself with the extent of their professionalization and professionalism. To illuminate these developments, he compared the positions of county and city managers, using the latter as a model towards whom the former aspire. Generally, he found, that county executives have less authority (that is, fewer administrators under their direct control) than their municipal counterparts. However, he also discerned a narrowing gap between these two kinds of officials because of similar pre-job and in-service training received by them and the elected officials to whom they report. In addition, he noted that almost all of the counties in this state now have professional executives and that their advancement has been substantial.

The ninth--and final--contribution, “Decentralization and Initiative: TVA Returns to its Roots” by John G. Stewart and Rena C. Tolbert, is significant in at least four respects. First, the essay presents another case study of professional development--but at the local headquarters of a federal agency: Knoxville, Tennessee. Second, this research centers on professionalization and professionalism in a third (or mixed) sector organization--namely, a public corporation rather than a governmental agency. Third, the professional development of the TVA is distinctive because it has been internally generated, especially due to the efforts of its early leaders (David E. Lilienthal and Gordon R. Clapp), rather than externally imposed, as in the previous case studies. This provenance is analogous to what often takes place in the corporate sector. Lilienthal was instrumental in promoting organizational decentralization and grass-roots democracy as approaches toward improving the viability of a controversial governmental innovation, one widely regarded as “socialistic” at and after its inception. Clapp fostered a managerial culture promoting employee initiative, easy access to top executives, organizational teamwork, labor-management collaboration, and partnerships with states and localities through councils and conferences. Fourth, the authors traced professional development in the TVA through what in this symposium is a unique pattern: strong early efforts, retrenchment through bureaucratization, and, recently, a return to the agency's roots.     

The policy adoption-implementation spiral

The “Policy Adoption-Implementation Spiral” is an exploration of the policy-making process that begins at the national level and proceeds through the labyrinth of administrative interpretations, court decisions, and judicial decrees before it is finally implemented at the state level. This analysis is based on the premise that policy adoption and policy implementation are not two separate steps in the policy-making process. The adoption/implementation process may be more clearly thought of as a continually narrowing spiral with each inward band of the spiral representing a further specification, refine- ment, clarification, or interpretation of a piece of public policy.

Equal Employment Opportunity policy is the content area used in this analysis. A case study is used which follows EEO policy from the National level down to its implementation in the area of employment opportunities for state jobs in the State of Alabama.