Public administration has changed radically over the last 30 years in organizational forms, role perceptions, practice, and the relevant research questions. Skillfully mastered public administration makes a difference in resolving conflicts, providing predictability, ensuring rights, and coping with problems of inclusiveness. This festchrift provides necessary information about public administration theory and practice, adding critical value to theoretical and methodological knowledge. The book demonstrates how a transformed public administration in practice makes a difference. It shows - through examination from various angles - how previous understandings of public administration have become obsolete. These changes are analyzed with a specific focus on four major research themes: (1) post-modern public administration, (2) neo-institutionalism, (3) fragmented local governance, and (4) method and methodology. The future prospects of public administration seem most promising if administrators are able to create ongoing dialogue with many parties. The book includes intriguing cases from the US and several European countries in order to illustrate how the theoretical and methodological approaches work in practice.

Global developments over the past half-century have transformed public administration and brought it to maturity as an autonomous discipline at the intersection of many important fields of study. The trends and challenges which confront this discipline are analyzed in this festschrift, which honors Gerald E. Caiden and his numerous inputs to the field since his graduation in 1957. During five decades of research and teaching, Dr. Caiden's professional life has spread across four continents, contributing greatly to the development of scholars and professional practitioners throughout the world. Their advancement of our knowledge of the public sphere worldwide and support of enhanced practices, combined with Caiden's scholarship, continue to define vital aspects of contemporary public administration and its future prospects, both locally and globally. The administrative state, which peaked in the 1950s and 1960s, gave way to neoliberalism and the new public management during the 1980s and 1990s. Already this is changing, as new ideas and visions surface on the horizon. Likewise, priorities shifted, as this volume shows. Concerns with central planning, with control, command and direction, gave way to greater emphasis on decentralization, de-bureaucratization, and human resources development but also, lately, ethics and anti-corruption strategies. Due process, rule of law, defense against arbitrariness, and protection and promotion of human and citizens' rights have also re-emerged as fields of growing concern, precisely on account of government's visible deficit in these regards. We are constantly on the move, but whether our direction will lead to the 'garrison state' or to a democratic 'facilitative state', as one contributor argues, remains a central issue, which calls for exploration and debate. In paying Gerald Caiden the tribute he so richly deserves, this festschrift, put together by scholars from around the world, traces and accounts for developments and bring us up-to-date. It is a fifty-year perspective on a field in rapid change, a rich and varied compendium, which represents a valuable addition to the literature on public administration, a necessary tool for training and research, as well as a useful companion for students and practitioners of public service globally.

"This report analyses the nature of these reforms, their rationale and design as well as issues of implementation and evaluation"--Back cover.

Managing Development in a Global Context examines the complex relationship between management, development and globalization from a multidimensional perspective. Key authors in the field explore the historical record, the current global, characteristics of present developmental and managerial dilemmas, and possible future scenarios.

Critical examinations of efforts to make governments more efficient and responsive Political upheavals and civil wars in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have obscured efforts by many countries in the region to reform their public sectors. Unwieldy, unresponsive—and often corrupt—governments across the region have faced new pressure, not least from their publics, to improve the quality of public services and open up their decisionmaking processes. Some of these reform efforts were under way and at least partly successful before the outbreak of the Arab Spring in 2010. Reform efforts have continued in some countries despite the many upheavals since then. This book offers a comprehensive assessment of a wide range of reform efforts in nine countries. In six cases the reforms targeted core systems of government: Jordan's restructuring of cabinet operations, the Palestinian Authority's revision of public financial management, Morocco's voluntary retirement program, human resource management reforms in Lebanon, an e-governance initiative in Dubai, and attempts to improve transparency in Tunisia. Five other reform efforts tackled line departments of government, among them Egypt's attempt to improve tax collection and Saudi Arabia's work to improve service delivery and bill collection. Some of these reform efforts were more successful than others. This book examines both the good and the bad, looking not only at what each reform accomplished but at how it was implemented. The result is a series of useful lessons on how public sector reforms can be adopted in MENA.

This open access book presents a topical, comprehensive and differentiated analysis of Germany’s public administration and reforms. It provides an overview on key elements of German public administration at the federal, Länder and local levels of government as well as on current reform activities of the public sector. It examines the key institutional features of German public administration; the changing relationships between public administration, society and the private sector; the administrative reforms at different levels of the federal system and numerous sectors; and new challenges and modernization approaches like digitalization, Open Government and Better Regulation. Each chapter offers a combination of descriptive information and problem-oriented analysis, presenting key topical issues in Germany which are relevant to an international readership.

The application of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) to reform governmental structures and public service is widely and perhaps naively viewed as the 21st century "savior", the enlightened way to reinvigorate democracy, reduce costs, and improve the quality of public services. This book examines the transition from e-government to digital governance in light of the financial exigencies and political controversies facing many governments. The chapters concentrate on strategies for public sector organizational transformation and policies for improved and measurable government performance in the current contentious political environment. This fully updated second edition of Digital Governance provides strategies for public officials to apply advanced technologies, manage remote workforces, measure performance, and improve service delivery in current crisis-driven administrative and political environments. The full implementation of advanced digital governance requires fundamental changes in the relationship between citizens and their governments, using ICTs as catalysts for political as well as administrative communication. This entails attitudinal and behavioral changes, secure networks, and less dependence on formal bureaucratic structures (covered in Part I of this book); transformation of administrative, educational, and security systems to manage public services in a more citizen-centric way (covered in Part II); the integration of advanced digital technologies with remote broadband wireless internet services (Part III); and the creation of new forms of global interactive citizenship and self-governance (covered in Part IV). Author Michael E. Milakovich offers recommendations for further improvement and civic actions to stimulate important instruments of governance and public administration. This book is required reading for political science, public administration, and public policy courses, as well as federal, state, and local government officials.