`The study and practice of
public administration, once seemingly stodgy subjects, have burst onto the scene as
dynamic components of modern statecraft. Peters and Pierre have brought together an
outstanding international team of scholars who examine just about every facet of
administration, from the new emphases on marketization, flexibility and customer service
to traditional concerns about hierarchy, accountability and administrative law. The volume
covers theory and practice, administrative reform, implementation and the intersection of
politics and administration - the old as well as the new public management - in a
comprehensive volume that belongs in the collection of everyone interested in the
administration of the contemporary state' - Professor Joel D Aberbach, Center for American
Politics and Public Policy, UCLA
`Whatever any student and
government official wants to know about the theory and practice of public administration
is contained in this encylopaedia of knowledge. The international team of authoritative
authors have produced an up-to-date survey of how public administration is carried on
around the world and what scholars say about it. They establish public administration as
central to the process of governing society' - Professor George Jones, London School of
Economics
'This handbook portrays
public administration as an integrated part of politics and the process of governing
society. With a strong team of authors representing experiences from many parts of the
world, this handbook calls attention to the peculiar nature of public administration, with
its complex mixes of tasks, objectives, types of personnel and resources, forms of
organization and governing, and environmental circumstances. It demonstrates that there is
more to public administration than consumer choice, efficient delivery of tailor-made
services, flexibility, markets, management and quantitativeperformance measures to remind
us why studying public administration is not only important but also fun' - Professor
Johan P Olsen, ARENA, Oslo
The past two decades have
been marked by a period of substantial, and often fundamental, change in public
administration. This major new international handbook provides a complete review and guide
to past and present knowledge in this essential field of inquiry.
Assembling an outstanding
team of scholars from around the world, it comprehensively explores the current state of
the art in academic thinking and the current structures and processes for the
administration of public policy following this period of rapid transformation and change.
A dominant theme throughout
the handbook is a critical reflection on the utility of scholarly theory and the extent to
which government practices inform the development of this theory. To this end it serves as
an essential guide for both the practice of public administration today and its on-going
development as an academic discipline.
A major landmark
publication, the Handbook of Public Administration will be indispensable to the teaching,
study and practice of public administration for students, academics and professionals
everywhere.
634 pages