Comparative Public Administration

Comparative Public Administration and Policy is an informed and thorough analysis of comparative public administration and policy. It defines the fundamental premises that motivated the evolution of the comparative movement. It takes on a monumental task of stock-taking and evaluation that have been lacking or disconnected in current literature. An effective system of administration is a foundation for effective governance. This is why administrative reform is a basic concern. Comparative research helps to break out of the usual confines of education provincialism and cultural parochialism by considering all systems for learning. The comparative method, therefore, is a crucial tool for the advancement of administrative knowledge. The book reviews several methodological choices and research options. Recognizing the significance of the organizational and behavioral aspects for managerial comparison, this study still relies on the national administrative system, or bureaucracy, as an appropriate unit of analysis.A chapter on comparative public policy and its linkages to comparative administration examines important connections between them. A growing literature has been focusing on public policy in a comparative perspective as a complementary, or even an alternative to the administrative focus.Administration of developing countries has not received the attention it deserves in the recent scholarship on administration. While 75 percent of the human race live in developing countries, and the interdependence of nations is accelerating, reliable knowledge about developing systems is increasingly sporadic and scarce. At the same time, problems of governance are getting more complex, which render the role of administrative knowledge and skills in national development as more profound.In this book, focus on developing systems is not at the expense of information and knowledge of administration of developed, industrial democracies. A unique analysis traces important historical events that resulted in reduction of arbitrary central powers, enhanced the influences of science and rationalism, and articulated many of the contemporary features of management in the industrial countries. This part also examines and evaluates provisions of the movement that has been referred to as The New Public Management.