This inspirational work encourages Public Administration professionals to participate in progressive social change by advocating progressive values to counter the regressive values currently dominant in American society. The book begins with an analysis of regressive and progressive societal values, and then discusses specific actions PA practitioners, scholars, and teachers can take to build awareness and use of progressive values. The author presents regressive and progressive values in five matched pairs, each representing a continuum of thought and action: aggressiveness and cooperation; belief and knowledge; economics as end, and economics as means; great inequality and limited inequality; and Earth as resource, and Earth as home.

This inspirational work encourages Public Administration professionals to participate in progressive social change by advocating progressive values to counter the regressive values currently dominant in American society. The book begins with an analysis of regressive and progressive societal values, and then discusses specific actions PA practitioners, scholars, and teachers can take to build awareness and use of progressive values. The author presents regressive and progressive values in five matched pairs, each representing a continuum of thought and action: aggressiveness and cooperation; belief and knowledge; economics as end, and economics as means; great inequality and limited inequality; and Earth as resource, and Earth as home.

For instructors who want to expose their students to the social, political, and historical context of the practice of public administration, this book provides a unique approach to the introductory PA course. The author's own text is skilfully interwoven with a collection of seminal readings and documents that illuminate the key issues of past and present for public service professionals in a democratic society. More than an overview of public administration, Public Administration and Society offers students a broad perspective on the American Founding Era, the relationship of citizens to government, and how the structure of government reflects societal values. The premise of the book is that understanding the societal context is important to the success of the practitioner and to the practitioner's role as a responsible agent of change in a democratic society. Introductory essays and readings offer students perspectives on five important thematic areas in public administration: the Founding-Era debate over the size and scope of government, the relationship of the community to the individual, public organizations and policy making, values and public administration, and the role of the public service practitioner in a democratic society. This new edition of features five new readings, and, based on input from adopters, an entirely new section on public policy making (Part IV: Public Organizations and Policy). The author's part-opening sections have all been extensively revised and updated.

Public service values are too rarely discussed in public administration courses and scholarship, despite recent research demonstrating the importance of these values in the daily decision making processes of public service professionals. A discussion of these very tenets and their relevance to core public functions, as well as which areas might elicit value conflicts for public professionals, is central to any comprehensive understanding of budget and finance, human resource management, and strategic planning in the public sector. Public Service Values is written specifically for graduate and undergraduate courses in public administration, wherever a discussion of public service ideals might enrich the learning experience and offer students a better understanding of daily practice. Exploring the meaning and application of specific values, such as Neutrality, Efficiency, Accountability, Public Service, and Public Interest, provides students and future professionals with a ‘workplace toolkit’ for the ethical delivery of public services. Well-grounded in scholarly literature and with a relentless focus on the public service professional, Public Service Values highlights the importance of values in professional life and encourages a more self-aware and reflective public practice. Case studies to stimulate reflection are interwoven throughout the book and application to practice is cemented in a final section devoted to value themes in professional life as well as a chapter dedicated to holding oneself accountable. The result is a book that challenges us to embrace the necessity of public service values in our public affairs curricula and that asks the important questions current public service professionals should make a habit of routinely applying in their daily decision making.

This compelling book explores the dimensions of social equity by asking the leading equity scholars to reflect on the responsibility for social equity and how equity can be achieved. Social equity is concerned with fairness in the development and administration of public policies. Despite its importance, there has always been an uneasiness in how equity is discussed and obtained. While we acknowledge that social equity is important, we have struggled in our efforts to achieve it. The inequities in our society and the lack of a concerted effort to address the problems have only become prominent due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Black Lives Matter Movement. Each of the chapters in this volume pays particular attention to how social equity can be effectively incorporated into the classroom. This book is a rare opportunity to shape the conversation about social equity and provide a venue for dialogue around the questions of what, why, and how we teach about equity. This book is an insightful resource for researchers and scholars of Politics and Public Administration. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Journal of Public Affairs Education.

We live in an era where many citizens feel increasingly uncertain about their futures, having to deal with stagnant wages, globalization, and wealth and income inequality, while, at the same time, policymakers appear unable or unwilling to reach any viable policy consensus on a wide range of major issues. Public Affairs and Democratic Ideals addresses these vexing conditions and the challenge they pose for public management and administration. Curtis Ventriss argues for reordering intellectual and policy priorities with a focus on publicness and the role of critical democratic thought in public affairs. Too often, the assumptions that underlie the prevailing theory and practice of addressing major political and economic problems remain unquestioned, with economic and political conflicts displaced into issues of administration and leadership. Ventriss calls for a reinvigorated notion of publicness based, in part, on a public social science, civic experimentation, and policies designed and tailored to the unique needs of various publics. As a way to move forward, this book offers ideas for redefining professionalism, promoting civic initiatives, and rethinking professional education for public service.

The discipline of public administration draws predominantly from political and organizational theory, but also from other social and behavioral sciences, philosophy, and even theology. This diversity results in conflicting prescriptions for the "proper" administrative role. So, how are those new to public administration to know which ideas are "legitimate"? Rather than accepting conventional arguments for administrative legitimacy through delegated constitutional authority or expertise, Logics of Legitimacy: Three Traditions of Public Administration Praxis does not assume that any one approach to professionalism is accepted by all scholars, practitioners, citizens, or elected representatives. Instead, it offers a framework for public administration theory and practice that fully includes the citizen as a political actor alongside elected representatives and administrators. This framework: Considers both direct and representative forms of democracy Examines concepts from both political and organizational theory, addressing many of the key questions in public administration Examines past and present approaches to administration Presents a conceptual lens for understanding public administration theory and explaining different administrative roles and practices The framework for public administration theory and practice is presented in three traditions of main prescriptions for practice: Constitutional (the bureaucrat), Discretionary (the entrepreneur), and Collaborative (the steward). This book is appropriate for use in graduate-level courses that explore the philosophical, historical, and intellectual foundations of public administration. Upon qualified course adoption, instructors will gain access to a course outline and corresponding lecture slides.