Big Questions for a Significant Public Administration

During the 1999 "Building Bridges Tour" (see Stivers 2000), PAR readers encouraged the editors to focus more attention on the so-called "Big Questions/Big Issues" of the field of public administration. In response to this suggestion, we created a new forum for scholarly discourse simply called "Big Questions/Big Issues." This inaugural forum begins with a context setting essay by John Kirlin,a leading proponent of the Big Questions/Big Issues perspective. Kirlin' essay is immediately followed by Laurence E. Lynn Jr.'s thought provoking piece, "The Myth of the Bureaucratic Paradigm: What Traditional Public Administration Really Stood For." Lynn' essay is important for it takes to task those who carelessly attack "traditional public administration." We asked J. Patrick Dobel (University of Washington), David Rosenbloom (American University), Norma Riccucci (State University of New York at Albany), and James Svara (North Carolina State) to respond to Lynn' essay. We invite PAR readers to join the conversation using PAR' message board online at ASPA's Online Community (http://www.memberconnections.com/aspa/) or by writing directly to theauthors and/or editors.—LDT     

Challenges of (Dis) Connectedness in the Big Questions Methodologies in Public Administration

The big questions articles previously published in Public Administration Review found a widely divergent set of questions rather than a shared research agenda. This article applies the concept of layers of society to analyzing the author's starting points and developing questions that link the organizational and institutional levels. Connecting these levels offers the potential to overcome the limitations of problem solving on only one level. In addition, this framework explains the diversity of research in public administration as potentially productive and connected, rather than fragmented and in intellectual disarray. This article offers four researchable questions that connect the organizational and institutional levels. The proposed questions build on existing research and address practical problems in public administration. This framework provides a typology that expects diverse research questions and can productively connect researchers with each other and with the complex challenges of democracy.     

公共管理学的法律途径及教育整合研究

管理主义日益凸显的唯效率造成的公平价值和公共性的缺失,以及社会和公共管理学自身的日益成长,都促使和呼唤公共管理学法律途径研究及教育的兴起和发展。本文力图论证公共管理法律途径的重要性和可行性,阐明公共管理法律途径的主要内容及研究进路,并对优化公共管理教育结构、重新定位不同层次公共管理教育目标、合理整合公共管理教育与法律学教育资源的问题提出了自己的看法。     

On Cooper's "Big Questions"

This is a commentary on Terry Cooper's effort to identify the "big questions" in administrative ethics to effect a more "focused, collaborative effort" in the ethics field. Although the author supports the thrust of Cooper's argument, he points out certain limitations therein.     

The Pursuit of Equality in Public Administration

Louis Kaplow and Steven Shavell, Fairness versus Welfare
Samuel Leiter and William M. Leiter, Affirmative Action in Antidiscrimination Law and Policy: An Overview and Synthesis
Stephen L. Ross and John Yinger, The Color of Credit: Mortgage Discrimination, Research Methodology, and Fair-Lending Enforcement     

公共行政的价值确认

公共行政学自产生之日起,就一直存在着效率价值取向和规范价值取向的争议与互动。研究这两种价值取向的互动与流变,对于深化公共行政价值取向的认识、促进公共行政学的发展具有重要意义。     

混沌理论与公共行政

本旨在探讨运用混沌理论分析公共行政的必要性与可能性。公共组织的非线性、复杂性、不确定性和变动性特征表明,主流公共行政学的理论预设并不符合公共行政的实际。为此,运用主要研究系统的非线性特征的混沌理论来理解公共行政现象并解决公共行政问题,不仅可能,而且必需。混沌不仅为我们提供了研究公共行政的的视角,而且为公共行政的改革提供了理论基础。     

公共行政理论的反思与阐释

作为一个舶来概念,公共行政理论是为了满足资本主义国家政府的治理需要,在吸收、融合政治学、社会学、管理学等学科理论的基础上形成的理论体系。政府的基础地位、事实与价值的关系和效率伦理的阐释是公正行政理论的核心范畴。公共行政理论的演变历程表明它是一个实践化的理论体系,是政府治理的历史选择,具有规范化的规律可循。在当代,只有将对既有理论的反思和中国实践的阐释有机结合起来,才能形成中国化马克思主义的公共行政理论。     

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.     

Big Data in Public Affairs

This article offers an overview of the conceptual, substantive, and practical issues surrounding “big data” to provide one perspective on how the field of public affairs can successfully cope with the big data revolution. Big data in public affairs refers to a combination of administrative data collected through traditional means and large‐scale data sets created by sensors, computer networks, or individuals as they use the Internet. In public affairs, new opportunities for real‐time insights into behavioral patterns are emerging but are bound by safeguards limiting government reach through the restriction of the collection and analysis of these data. To address both the opportunities and challenges of this emerging phenomenon, the authors first review the evolving canon of big data articles across related fields. Second, they derive a working definition of big data in public affairs. Third, they review the methodological and analytic challenges of using big data in public affairs scholarship and practice. The article concludes with implications for public affairs.     

行政监察专员制度：破解公共治理难题的制度选择

环境污染、劳工权益保护、土地资源破坏、食品药品安全监管等许多公共治理难题,给政府治理能力带来严峻挑战。如何借鉴国外先进治理经验破解现代化进程中的治理难题,是我们必须认真探讨的重大课题。行政监察专员制度为我们提供了一种崭新的思路。     

反思"公共管理(学)":公共行政的观点

公共管理(学)研究,是在扬弃(传统)公共行政(学)观念和行政改革实践的基础之上发展成为目前各国行政学理论发展的主流.具体就我国特定的历史情境而言,笔者认为由于国内行政学理论探讨中存在的"公共性"不足和"行政"研究的相对不足,以及中国行政现实的需求,"公共行政"研究应成为当前最紧要的任务.对"公共管理"概念、理念、模式的引入与研究应相当慎重,公共行政学的科学价值与学术地位不容动摇.