Product Description: Public policy analysts and political pundits alike tend to describe the policymaking process as a reactive sequence in which government develops solutions for clearly evident and identifiable problems. While this depiction holds true in many cases, it fails to account for instances in which public policy is enacted in anticipation of a potential future problem...read more

This widely praised work provides a framework for the many voices calling for the reaffirmation of democratic values, citizenship, and service in the public interest. The expanded edition includes an all-new chapter that addresses the practical issues of applying these ideals in actual, real-life situations. "The New Public Service, Expanded Edition" is organized around a set of seven core principles: serve citizens, not customers; seek the public interest; value citizenship and public service above entrepreneurship; think strategically, act democratically; recognize that accountability isn't simple; serve, rather than steer; and value people, not just productivity. The book asks us to think carefully and critically about what public service is, why it is important, and what values ought to guide what we do and how we do it. It celebrates what is distinctive, important and meaningful about public service and considers how we might better live up to those ideals and values. All students and serious practitioners in public administration and public policy should read this book. While debates about public policy issues will surely continue, this compact, clearly written volume provides an important framework for public service based on and fully integrated with citizen discourse and the public interest.

The Public Administration Theory Primer explores how the science and art of public administration is definable, describable, replicable, and cumulative. The authors describe several theories and analytical approaches that contribute to what we know about policy administration and consider which are the most promising, influential, and important—both now and for the future. The extensively updated second edition includes the latest directions and developments in public administration theory. These include the rise of reporting as a means to hold bureaucracy accountable, the continuing evolution of the “hollow state” or “shadow bureaucracy” and the rise of network theory, and new psychological and biological behavioral research with important implications for decision theory and rational choice. The contributions of nearly a decade's worth of new research are woven into all the chapters, in some cases altering conclusions about the health and robustness of certain popular conceptual frameworks.

Most people talk about red tape as thought it were some kind of loathsome disease or the deliberate product of a group of evil conspirators or the result of bureaucratic stupidity and inertia. It is rarely discussed rationally, dispassionately, and analytically; most of us rage about it when it comes up. In this book, Kaufman attempts a detached examination of the subject to find out why something so universally detested flourishes so widely and enjoys such powers of endurance. Part of the explanation is the protean character of the term " red tape" ; each of us applies it to our own pet grievances, not realizing that other people's grievances are often quite different from our own. Underlying this variance, however, is a common core of meaning, and the first part of the book identifies that shared understanding. The second part searches for the origins of the despised phenomenon in the federal government, and finds the source not in a clique of fools or villains, but in all of us. Red tape, according to this analysis, springs largely from the diversity of values to which people in our society subscribe, from the demands on government to which these values give rise, and from the responsiveness of the government to the demands. In this sense, red tape is of our own making. Consequently, getting rid of it entirely--rewinding the spools, as it were-is a hopeless quest. The major proposals for eliminating it are found wanting in this regard (though there may be other reasons to favor some of these reforms); they may even generate as much red tape as they cut. That being the case, Kaufman concludes that a more fruitful policy would be to concentrate on relieving the worst of redtape's irritants so as to make bearable what we cannot end, and he explores several steps he believes will have this effect. Although many readers will find this book depressing, most will probably acknowledge the persuasiveness of its argument. And some, like the author, will take heart from the analysis on the grounds that relief measures rooted in reality are much more likely to succeed than proposals for improvement based on delusive optimism and false hope.

Product Description: A unique approach to policy implementation with essential guidance and useful tools Effective Implementation in Practice: Integrating Public Policy and Management presents an instrumental approach to implementation analysis. By spanningpolicy fields, organizations, and frontline conditions in implementation systems, this book provides a robust foundation for policy makers, public and nonprofit managers and leaders...read more

Product Description: Provides a blueprint for more effective government and greater citizen participation."Transparency" has become the new mantra of politicians and pundits alike. But what does it mean in practice? In this informative, clearly written book community activist Donald Gordon defines the essential features of a transparent government and makes a convincing case that it is critical for a healthy and maturing democracy and the basic liberties we all take for granted...read more

Product Description: Designed to serve as a basic text for an introductory course in Public Administration, this innovative work provides students with an understanding of the basic management functions that are covered in all standard textbooks with two important differences...read more

Product Description: The first edition of this work, published in 1993, refuted the notion that administrative ethics could not be studied empirically. In this second edition, Frederickson (public administration, University of Kansas) and Ghere (political science, University of Dayton) expand their scope to include both the managerial and individual/moral dimensions of ethical behavior, and add a new section on administrative ethics and globalization...read more

Product Description: Charles Prow has brought together an impressive lineup of businessmen and women, reporters, and experts to show how the United States can be more competitive in the global economy. This book shows not only what is wrong with the current federal spending plan, but ways to fix it...read more

The seventh edition of PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN AMERICA offers a streamlined, accessible, and up-to-date design of the most comprehensive and widely used introduction to contemporary public administration.

Product Description: Governing Fables: Learning from Public Sector Narratives advocates the importance of narrative for public servants, exemplifies it with a rigorously selected and analyzed set of narratives, and imparts narrative skills politicians and public servants need in their careers...read more