Improving the Managerial Capacity of the Federal Government: A Public Administration Agenda for the Next President

The reputation of a president can be enhanced or diminished depending on the quality of federal management. This transition memorandum draws on the insights of the fellows of the National Academy of Public Administration. It urges the next president to (1) set a tone and strengthen organizational infrastructure to promote effective management across government, (2) create an office to monitor potential major risks and ensure adequate response, and (3) pass on to his successor more capable government than he found. Only then can the incoming administration form the basis for short‐term success and longer‐term effectiveness to implement the president’s policy agenda.     

Competing Ontologies: A Primer for Public Administration

A growing number of public administration theorists are taking up the question of ontology—the nature of existence. This primer on the topic provides a basic explanation of ontology, describes the fundamental debates in the competing ontologies of Western philosophy, and discusses why ontology is important to social and political theory, as well as to public administration theory and practice. Using an ideal‐type approach, the author analyzes how different ontologies imply particular political forms that undergird public administration theories and practices. This ideal‐type model can be used to identify the ontological assumptions in these theories and practices. The article concludes with an invitation for personal reflection on the part of scholars and practitioners in regard to which ontology best fits their experience and beliefs and the alternatives that we might pursue for a better future.     

政府公共财政职能改革的方向

一、压力与挑战：政府改革的必要性在没有加入世贸组织以前，中国经济发展的内在要求是改革政府规制的主要动力。加入世贸组织以后，政府改革将同时面临既要适应国内经济发展要求又要符合国际贸易规则要求的双重压力。“入世”以后，我国的对外开放和对内改革将进入新的历史阶段。在对外开放上将出现以下特点：我国对外开放从单边自主走向与世贸组织成员多边的相互开放；我国以自主政策为基础和主导的对外开放走向以世贸组织规则为基础的开放；我国对外开放将从局部地区、部分产业走向整体和全部行业的对外开放。这种开放是以世贸组织为法律…     

改革开放以来的中国公共行政学

改革开放以后,中国公共行政学得以恢复与重建,并逐渐确立了其应有的学科地位,从而获得了更大的发展空间,取得了辉煌的成就:高等院校公共行政学科学院化,建立了完整的专业教育体系,专业性学术组织蓬勃发展,创办了一批专业学术期刊,积极开展国际学术交流;研究领域不断拓展,研究范式不断转换,研究方法不断改进,话语体系不断构建等。公共行政学的发展在推动我国行政体制改革、构建服务型政府、转变政府职能、培育公共精神、提升政府治理能力等方面都起到了重要作用,但在没有形成完备的本土化理论体系、研究方法的结构性失衡、公共行政的合法性危机等方面,仍面临较大的挑战。不过,全面深化改革的进一步推进、国家治理体系与治理能力现代化水平的逐步提高、互联网与大数据技术的广泛应用,也为公共行政学的发展创造了巨大的发展机遇。未来中国公共行政学的发展要立足现实,及时回应和满足社会变革的需要,创新公共行政学的研究范式与方法,构建具有中国特色的公共行政学话语体系和本土化的公共行政学理论。     

我国行政管理改革的特殊维度——立足我国国情借鉴“新公共管理“运动的思考

由于社会背景不同,因此,我国的行政管理改革只能借鉴而不能照搬西方的“新公共管理”模式。我们应当在审视自身国情的基础上,把握我国行政管理改革不同于西方“新公共管理”运动的特殊方面。这至少包括:为行政管理改革提供良好的法治环境;突出服务职能,同时强化必要的管制;大力培育非政府组织;有限制地引入市场机制和私营部门的管理方法;在促进规则制度建设的同时逐渐加大结果评价的权重;实现政治与行政的分离而又提升管理者的政治责任感。     

The Politics of Financial Regulatory Reform in Britain and Germany

Over the past decade, Britain and Germany have both made fundamental changes to their financial regulatory regimes with the creation of single powerful regulators. In both cases, this meant either ending or severely limiting the regulatory role of central banks. This article argues that the creation of these new regulatory actors cannot be understood without reference to the preferences of domestic political actors responding to the increased political salience of financial regulation as a policy issue. The result was distinct partisan differences about institutional design and responsibilities with centre-left parties seeking regulatory actors clearly accountable to government and parliament. Such an account of institutional change is in contrast to previous accounts of the evolution of financial regulation that are largely exogenous to domestic politics.     

Answering the Public Choice Challenge: A Neoprogressive Research Agenda

A neoprogressive research agenda is developed to challenge public choice theory's position as the new orthodoxy in both understanding and guiding policy choices about urban service delivery. Such a challenge requires more than accumulating negative empirical tests. Rather, we must accept the new burden of proof laid on proponents of progressive reform institutions by the theories of nonmarket failure and quasimarkets, ideas that undermined the intellectual pillars supporting progressive reform institutions and can only be challenged by new ideas. Public choice theory itself, broadly considered, is proposed as a valid source of such new ideas. Three research programs, in part already underway, are outlined as essential building blocks in the research agenda, focusing, respectively, on blunting the rough edges of the theory of nonmarket failure, coordinating the empirical critiques of quasimarkets in a new theory of quasimarket failure, and developing the new institutionalism so that it can provide the basis for comparing the production outcomes of alternative urban institutions.     

Implementing Federal Credit Reform: Challenges Facing Public Sector Financial Managers

This articles discusses the budgetary accounting framework instituted by the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990. It identifies challenges facing credit agency managers who will be responsible for implementing new credit reform budgetary accounting systems, as envisioned by the legislation and the Office of Management and Budget's revised credit apportionment and budget execution instructions.     

Five Questions: An Integrated Research Agenda for Public Choice

All societies, political or academic, must choose among alternatives; these choices can be good, or bad. The worst choice may be looking for“answers” before there is consensus, or at least a debate, on what the real questions should be. Five “real” questions are offered here, in an integrated research agenda for Public Choice. My premis is that there is a single, fundamental human problem: Construct or preserve institutions that make self-interested individual action not inconsistent with group welfare. All social science research is either a distraction, or a step toward understanding at least one of five questions: (1) What are Preferences? (2) What are feasible Alternatives? (3) How much does the form of Implementation affect the way alternatives are valued? (4) How do alternatives chosen Today affect the Menu of alternatives available in the Future? (5) What is Good? How would we know if some outcomes are better than others?

     

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.     

Self-Reflexivity: A Place for Religion and Spirituality in Public Administration

This article describes an empirical study of a select set of mid-level managers in the federal government. The study examined the participant's capacity to engage in the kind of self-reflexivity that Michael Harmon calls for in his 1995 book Responsibility as Paradox: A Critique of Rational Discourse on Government. Specifically, it focuses on the reflections of two participants, both of whom asserted a direct relationship between their religious beliefs and their work as public administrators. Three implications for the discipline and practice of public administration are developed.