The Next Public Administration
The Next Public Administration
Debates and Dilemmas
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B. Guy Peters and Jon Pierre 2018
First published 2018
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017940492
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ISBN 978-1-4462-5283-3
ISBN 978-1-4462-5289-5 (pbk)
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About the Authors
B. Guy Petersis Maurice Falk Professor of American Government at the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his PhD at Michigan State University in 1970 and has four honorary doctorates from European universities. He is founding President of the International Public Policy Association, and founding editor of
Governance and the
European Political Science Review. Guy Peters is associate editor of the
Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and also editor of a book series on public sector organizations for Palgrave/Macmillan. He is author or editor of over 80 books, including most recently
Pursuing Horizontal Management: The Politics of Policy Coordination, and
Governance and Comparative Politics (with Jon Pierre).Jon Pierreis Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and Professor of Public Governance, Melbourne School of Government, University of Melbourne. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. His most recent books in English include
Governing the Embedded State (with Bengt Jacobsson and Gran Sundstrm, Oxford University Press, 2015);
The Relevance of Political Science (co-edited with Gerry Stoker and B. Guy Peters, Palgrave, 2015);
The Oxford Handbook of Swedish Politics (ed., Oxford University Press, 2015); and
Comparative Governance with B. Guy Peters, Cambridge University Press, 2017). His work has also appeared in journals such as
Administration and Society,
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory,
Public Administration and
Journal of Politics.
Public Administration in Democratic Governance
Few phenomena in public life are probably more misunderstood than public administration. It is customary to think of public administration, or public bureaucracies as they are often called, as rigid organizations more concerned with promoting their own interests than catering to the needs of their clients. The more extreme images of the bureaucracy tend to portray these public organizations as essentially exoskeletons of power and control, accountable to no one. Political rhetoric, fictional literature but also a surprising amount of academic work is replete with these images of public administration. These caricatures also serve political purposes. Parties and politicians on the political right advocating extensive tax cuts and cutbacks in the public service need to instill an image of an inefficient, costly and power-minded bureaucracy to sustain their claim that taxes can be cut dramatically without any noticeable difference to the rest of society. And parties of the political left have criticized public administration for being insensitive to the needs of the disadvantaged in society.
Yet these public institutions organize public transport in cities, manage service facilities for children and the elderly, provide emergency rescue services, maintain infrastructure, and help ensure safety and security to citizens. They are charged with the fundamental task of implementing public policy and upholding legal authority. To be sure, it is difficult to think of any significant public service that is not delivered by the public bureaucracy or a private contractor working for the bureaucracy. Furthermore, while it is certainly true that administrative decisions can have a major impact on the lives of clients and citizens from issuing a drivers license to sentencing individuals to serve time in prison or having them deported that administrative authority is conducted under supervision and accountability.
Given this centrality of the public administration in fundamental public affairs such as policy implementation and service delivery, at least in the Western democratic world, the public administration is integral to democratic governance. However, this perspective has been overlooked for a long time, with the public bureaucracy treated to a large extent as a system of organizations on its own. For instance, in the United States, public administration and political science have become different academic disciplines; an arrangement which has prevented many observers from observing the inherently political and democratic mission of the public bureaucracy. Many political scientists now do not appear to realize that most of the work of governing is done through public administrators.
It is also a mistake to think of the public bureaucracy as a rigid, self-referential system unable or unwilling to change and modernize. There are few, if any, areas of the public sector that have undergone more extensive reform over the past couple of decades than the public administration. Public organizations have to a significant extent increased their efficiency in delivering service and to operate in closer contact with their clients. New models for measuring the performance of the bureaucracy have been developed and are today an essential instrument in the management of most public organizations. Managers have been given greater autonomy, allowing them to organize their work in an efficient and professional way. Basically all major systems in the public administration, from human resource management to budgeting and accounting, have been thoroughly modernized over the past several years.
