How policymakers should guide, manage, and oversee public bureaucracies is a question that lies at the heart of contemporary debates about government and public administration. This text calls for public management to become a vibrant field of public policy.

Despite predictions that 'new public management' would establish itself as the new paradigm of Public Administration and Management, recent academic research has highlighted concerns about the intra-organizational focus and limitations of this approach. This book represents a comprehensive analysis of the state of the art of public management, examining and framing the debate in this important area. The New Public Governance? sets out to explore this emergent field of research and to present a framework with which to understand it. Divided into five parts, the book examines: Theoretical underpinnings of the concept of governance, especially competing perspectives from Europe and the US Governance of inter-organizational partnerships and contractual relationships Governance of policy networks Lessons learned and future directions Under the steely editorship of Stephen Osborne and with contributions from leading academics including Owen Hughes, John M. Bryson, Don Kettl, Guy Peters and Carsten Greve, this book will be of particular interest to researchers and students of public administration, public management, public policy and public services management.

A festchrift in honour of Peter C. Aucoin, professor emeritus of political science and public administration.

The demands associated with good governance and good public management are at an all-time high. Yet the discipline of Canadian public administration is in flux, and the time is ripe for an open and frank analysis of its state and possibilities. Canadian Public Administration in the 21st Century brings together emerging voices in Canadian public adm

In the face of the need to make choices between programs that governments consider essential to administer themselves and programs that may be discontinued or transferred to other organizations, a new vision of government functioning has emerged, notably with greater emphasis on performance and results. This book analyzes the impact of an increasingly influential paradigm called new public management on the public services of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Major challenges common to these countries include powerful bureaucracies, restrictive organizational designs, and rigid rules and procedures blocking change. The book reviews various reform initiatives launched in response to those challenges in the areas of career public service, statecraft, administrative fragmentation and centralization, consolidation and devolution of authority, moving beyond bureaucracy, enhancing performance, and securing accountability. The book concludes with an agenda for public management.