From a discipline without a subject to a subject without a discipline.

This article suggests an approach to the classical issues of the public administration theory, through the so-called new institutionalism. It argues that public policies could be taken by public administration theory as a new object of study, which this theory has gradually lost in the past. Nevertheless, whether the policy sciences can be useful1 or not to develop public administration as a discipline depends on the theoretical bridge offered by the new institutional approach. To propose how and why is the main objective of this article, based on the Mexican academic debate.     

Understanding Migration: The Case for Public Administration

ABSTRACT

Migration has emerged as a key issue for governments in the 21^st century. While multiple disciplines address migration, the study of public administration has been slow to do so. Given the complexities of migration policy implementation, and the multiple levels of government involved, public administration can add significantly to the current understandings of the phenomenon. This article examines what is known on migration, what still needs to be understood, and how public administration can assist in understanding migration.     

Implications of Globalization in the Teaching of Public Administration in Africa: The Case of Nigeria

Abstract

This article examines the implications of globalization in the teaching of public administration in Nigeria. It explores the teaching of public administration in Nigeria before and after 1986. The study argues that the teaching of public administration in Nigeria followed the British educational pattern before 1986, but changed to the United States model between 1987 and 2002. It also argues that for public administration training to be meaningful in Nigeria, it should be designed and implemented with relevance to the sustainable development mission of the nation. The article examines the poor fit between the British and American models and the political environment in Nigeria. This wrong fit between the western models of teaching public administration and the appropriate model for Nigeria has been a major concern to those advocating sustainable development in the nation. Some suggestions are given on how to improve the teaching of public administration in Nigeria in the future.     

Strategic change,leadership and accounting: A triptych of organizational reform

Strategic change in public sector organizations has been well documented. This article suggests that public management research would benefit from a greater appreciation of how calculative practices are deeply imbricated with, and constitutive of, organizational life. In turn, the article argues that the field of interdisciplinary accounting has much to learn from public administration, especially in terms of leadership. The overarching argument is that understanding strategic change in public organizations can be enhanced by bringing together insights from the academic fields of public administration and interdisciplinary accounting. In this respect, organizational reform can be understood as a triptych, involving strategic change, leadership and accounting practices. We illustrate this thesis through a case study of strategic change in the world's largest public service broadcaster—the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It is shown how, during the tenure of one organizational leader—John Birt—accounting became pivotal to his leadership.     

Public administrators and policy analysis: beyond political science

This article proposes using an analytical techniques approach to teaching policy analysis in public administration programs. It is organized using questions raised by journalists: who, what, why, where, when, and how. Although most attention is devoted to the content of such an approach, the initial portion of the article provides a rationale for taking that approach. The initial portion of the article concludes with a rejoinder to those who might be tempted to dismiss the argument out of hand because the proposed view of policy analysis is not a political science one.

It is desirable to go beyond a political science view of policy analysis in teaching public policy in public administration programs to a broader conception of policy analysis. Then, public policy can be fully integrated into public administration programs.

The antithesis is heard in required statistics and research methods courses where students complain that the material is irrelevant to their degree programs and career goals when the uses of statistics and research methods are not related to the practice of public administration. Integrating public policy into a public administration curriculum is most feasible in the area of policy analysis. Presentation of this argument follows the categories journalists use to ask questions and write stories: who, what, why, where, when, and how. Most attention is directed toward what.     

GOVERNANCE AND THE PUBLIC GOOD

The paper examines the control of power, using an account of the public good developed from Aristotle. It identifies three different perspectives on the relationship between governance (the control of power) and the public good: a 'cybernetic' perspective, an 'axiological' perspective, and a perspective of 'critique'. This framework offers a way to scrutinize the exercise of power, and to evaluate the linkages between a political administration and its citizenry. To evaluate an administration's legacy, this framework suggests we should study: (1) how an administration controls power over time; (2) how an administration exhibits virtue; and (3) how an administration creates conditions which enable its citizens to live the good life. Narrative theory is one basis for empirical development of this framework. This contributes to some long-standing debates in management, public administration, economics and political science. It also enables critical examination of a fashionable, though vague, term: 'public value'.     

NIGERIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATORS' PERCEPTION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF MANAGERIAL SKILLS

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes Nigerian public managers' perception of the importance of managerial skills and management principles. The study presents an argument that national and state governments in Nigeria should use management principles to “steer, not row” their respective societies. It outlines some of the major steps required to create a dynamic public management and governmental machinery capable of both planning and execution of comprehensive development plans in the future. The study addresses the question: How can Nigeria's government extract management resources from its society and deploy them to create and support a cohesive and innovative administration? It further suggests reasons why public management in Nigeria needs to be reformed to play a more developmental and accountable role in the future. New public management principles are also utilized in evaluating how the reform can be accomplished.     

Public administration in Marshall Dimock's textbooks

This article examines the relationship between Marshall Dimock's positive, broad-based concept of public administration and his approach to writing undergraduate textbooks. Analysis shows that both Dimock's American government and public administration textbooks provide a different slant on public agencies than that available in most current introductory volumes. In particular, his American government textbook is more positive in tone about agencies than are its modern counterparts. The public administration textbook has comparative material that rarely appears in introductory-level textbooks.

This article analyzes how Marshall Dimock's conception of public administration as an important area of study with links to policy and leadership anchored his textbook writing. In the 1950s Dimock co-authored two popular textbooks for basic undergraduate courses, one in American government and the other in public administration.⁽¹⁾

Scholars still debate what textbooks in either field should teach students about public agencies. Cigler and Neiswender argue that current American government textbooks portray administration in a negative light. All authors see bureaucracy as a problem of some sort, few explain the role administrators play in shaping policy and none discuss reasons to enter the public service.⁽²⁾ Cigler and Neiswender suggest that American government textbooks must change to aid accurate perceptions of the administrative role. In particular, they believe the texts must add material on the public service as a profession and compare American agencies with those in other nations.

Since public administration textbooks are a key way that majors in the field learn material, debate ensues on what material they should contain. Recent articles explore how textbooks define key terms such as policy and how they integrate the work of various theorists.⁽³⁾

While all widely-used textbooks deal with both the political environment and internal agency functions (e.g., personnel, finance), no consensus exists on how to allocate space between political and managerial concerns nor on exactly which subtopics should be covered. No consensus exists on how much space should be devoted to policy making and policy analysis with some textbooks covering this topic and others skimming it lightly.

One often cited problem with contemporary texts is the lack of a comparative focus and a concomitant need to internationalize the curriculum.⁽⁴⁾ The thrust of current proposals is that students need a more broad-based education to prepare them for global leadership.

Interestingly, Dimock's approach to public administration led him to write textbooks that in some ways surpass what is available today. While the majority of the topics he presents (and their ordering) are similar to current efforts, he offers unique emphases that deal with the above mentioned criticisms. Far from being an exercise in academic nostalgia, examining Dimock's textbooks is a useful way of giving current writers new insights.

To appreciate Dimock's approach to textbook construction we first have to identify the core concepts behind his approach to public administration education. Afterwards, we can analyze the treatment of public agencies in American Government in Action, relating it to Cigler and Neiswender's critique of contemporary textbooks, and -examine how various editions of Public Administration conceptualize the field.     

Independent Budget Offices and the Politics–Administration Dichotomy

The discipline of public administration has long grappled with the issue of how much involvement by public managers is warranted in the political sphere. Legislative Budget Offices (LBOs) provide an intriguing case study in this regard. This article examines the contributions of three works that successfully encapsulate the difficulties, as well as the merits, of an institution constituted of public managers (economists) wresting political control from politicians (executives and legislators) to create value for the public. The review article thus shows why the experiences of Legislative Budget Offices can serve as informative accounts for scholars of public administration.     

Public Administration Research in Norway: Organization theory, institutionalism and empirical studies in a democratic context

This article gives a broad overview of Norwegian research on public administration over the past 40 years. The main picture that emerges is that a Norwegian public administration built primarily on Webernian principles has lost some but not all these original properties. It describes a research tradition based on organizational theory and democratic theory. It also paints a picture of public administration as integrated into a complex network of domestic political institutions, public agencies, organized interests and clients, as well as extensive European and international networks. It shows how a strong theoretical tradition, based on bounded rationality, is supplemented by different types of institutional theories and increased theoretical pluralism. Finally, the paper underlines the importance of considering public administration not simply from an internal technical viewpoint, but of placing the discipline in a wider political and democratic context.     

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood:” Public administration,the management orthodoxy,and civic humanism

Public administration is confronted with a dilemma: whether to follow the course of the management orthodoxy; or to follow the course of civic humanism. It is argued that the profession should follow the latter path. Democratic public administration must be informed by a civic idealism, centering on civic virtue, that insures that morality will be realized in action. Yet in recent years, public administration has become overly entranced with the orthodoxy of the management sciences. The profession's ties with the management sciences have proven to be practically advantageous, but, overall, the association has been negative. Public administration has begun to lose its soul: its sense of civic idealism. The management orthodoxy adopts a more positivist stance, because virtue will not yield to the dominant methodology and is, hence, considered to be unreliable. A civic humanist approach to public administration requires a rather exalted notion of human potential, and a conception of political service as something both necessary and unique. Thus, in a correctly ordered republic, a public administration, guided by civic humanism, would consider the promotion of virtue among all citizens as a primary responsibility.

The 19th century brought about the creation of the modern organization. The early organizationalists argued that society would no longer need to rely upon the unpredictable virtue of its leaders and citizens. Instead, through scientific administration, all societal needs could be assessed and met by organizations. That assumption, in a more sophisticated guise, has carried over to the present day. Thus, the primary responsibility of organizational leadership is to ensure organizational survival. Such leaders are not required to be individuals of virtue; they only need to be effective motivators and managers.

If this argument is accepted, then the question becomes one of how public administration can recover its soul. First, the core of the public administration curriculum must be a political philosophy centering upon civic humanism. Second, public management goals and techniques must be modified to promulgate civic virtue. Granted, these recommendations are overtly idealistic, but, then, public administration should be an idealistic profession.     

The ideology of professionalism in public administration: implications for education

One of the most influential themes in contemporary public administration is the focus on professionalism. As Dwight Waldo has argued, public administration should act as if it were a profession even if there is hardly any chance of becoming one. This article will explore the pedagogical implications of the ideology of professionalism on education, and how it has impacted the intellectual development of the field. It will be argued that the intellectual baggage of professionalism poses critical challenges to the meaning and substantive purpose of public administration.     

Leadership for public value: Political astuteness as a conceptual link

Both leadership and public value are increasingly seen as concepts highly relevant to public administration, not only because of complex societal challenges but also as ways to address pluralistic interests in society. This article explores in detail the varied conceptualizations of public value and of public leadership. Furthermore, we argue that political astuteness provides an important conceptual linkage between leadership and public value, enabling actors to read, understand and foster coalitions around diverse and sometimes competing interests. In this introduction to the symposium, we analyse the different conceptualizations of public value, of leadership, and also show how the six articles explicitly or implicitly draw on the linking concept of political astuteness. The article assesses how the six articles of the symposium contribute to each of these three concepts.     

Social Media as a Leverage Strategy for Open Government: An Exploratory Study

Social media are regarded to be a cornerstone for addressing the open government challenge that public administration faces. However, scientific knowledge about how social media can leverage open government is limited. Therefore, this study applies a mixed-methods research proceeding to develop a conceptual framework for the strategic use of social media concerning open government initiatives. The study concludes that social media applications can be strategically applied to foster open government and to improve citizen–government interaction. From the findings, strategic recommendations for open government-related social media adoption are developed and practical advice for responsible public managers is given.     

Exploring agency as a basis for ethical theory in American public administration

This articale argues that agency, the normative theory associated with the “acting for” relationship in society, has had a profound, but often unrecognized affect on ethics in public administration. Accordingly, it seeks to provide a brief review of agency theory as it applies to contemporary American public adminis- tration. The review provides an overview of agency theory, gives an example of how deeply it influences American public administration, shows how it facilitates ethical action in administration and reviews some of the major obstacles to employing agency theory in the modern American administrative state.     

The value of comparative analysis

Critical questions in both theory and practice can only be answered through comparative analysis whose value increases with the growing internationalization of public administration. Theoretically, it has long been assumed that public administration has to be a discipline reaching beyond one country and any specific culture, but the practical benefits derived from comparative analysis, such as more effetive policy making, better administrative arrangements and enhanced development prospects need also t o be stressed. Comparative bureaucratic corruption illustrates both the benefits and t h e difficult methodological problems encountered, in this case revealing why rich and stable polities can depend on legal–rational norms while poor and unstable polities a r e more susceptible t o systemic deviant conduct by public officials.     

Multicultural public administration: Effects of language diversity and dissimilarity on public employees' attachment to employment

A major part of research in public administration focuses on the impact of ethnic diversity on outcomes such as performance and turnover, and on the management of diversity with regard to different employee groups. Recent research, however, shows the relevance of relational demography in the context of employee inclusion in public organizations. So far, most studies have been based on ethnic differences in countries that can be described as mononational and monolinguistic. The current study advances this stream of research by investigating how diversity and dissimilarity measures affect public employees' attachment to employment in a multicultural public administration in Switzerland. Evidence from a hierarchical multilevel analysis revealed that language diversity and the support for diversity from supervisors affected individuals' attachment. However, our findings on individuals' language dissimilarity related to the inclusion of minorities did not support the assumed crowding‐out effect between diversity and dissimilarity. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed.     

Maturation of Public Administration in a Multicultural Environment: Lessons from the Anglo-Saxon,Latin, and Scandinavian Political Traditions

Abstract

A comparative analysis is made of three different models of public administration: the Anglo-Saxon, the Latin, and the Scandinavian. The purpose of this comparison is to analyze how these ideal-types of public administration handle the issue of power. Our argument is that without understanding and facing the issue of the amount of power that bureaucrats and politicians possess in any society, public administration will continue to be handicapped to understand the dynamics of the real world and therefore grow as a discipline. This is so despite the universalist claims of the currently fashionable ideas of the New Public Management.     

Teaching public policy in a public administration program

An overlooked aspect of academic concern in public administration is the realm of public policy. Policy intrudes into administration at a number of crucial points; administration influences the direction and emphasis of policy in various ways. These interrelationships warrant more attention in the training of public administrators. Regrettably, they have remained largely off-limits in the training of public administrators. Why and how we should proceed to alter this state of affairs is the essence of the symposium that follows.