Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

The Transformation of Governance: Public Administration for Twenty-First Century America

Donald F. Kettl

3.7/5 ( ratings)

The theory of public administration has long been based on the notions of hierarchy and authority. However, the way managers actually manage has increasingly become at odds with the theory. The growing gap between theory and practice poses enormous challenges for managers in determining how best to work—and for American government in determining how best to hold public administrators accountable for effectively doing their jobs.

In the quest to improve the practice of public administration, Kettl explains, political scientists and other scholars have tried a number of approaches, including formal modeling, implementation studies, a public management perspective, and even institutional choice. This book offers a new framework for reconciling effective administration with the requirements of democratic government. Instead of thinking in terms of organizational structure and management, Kettl suggests, administrators and theorists need to focus on "governance,"or links between government and its broader environment—political, social, and administrative. Government is the collection of institutions that act with authority and create formal obligations; governance is the set of processes and institutions, formal and informal, through which social action occurs. Linking government and governance, Kettl concludes, is the foundation for understanding the theory and practice of government in twenty-first century America—for making public programs work better and for securing the values on which the American republic has been built.

Language: English

Pages: 224

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Release: September 03, 2002

ISBN: 0801870496

ISBN 13: 9780801870491

The Transformation of Governance: Public Administration for Twenty-First Century America

Donald F. Kettl

3.7/5 ( ratings)

The theory of public administration has long been based on the notions of hierarchy and authority. However, the way managers actually manage has increasingly become at odds with the theory. The growing gap between theory and practice poses enormous challenges for managers in determining how best to work—and for American government in determining how best to hold public administrators accountable for effectively doing their jobs.

In the quest to improve the practice of public administration, Kettl explains, political scientists and other scholars have tried a number of approaches, including formal modeling, implementation studies, a public management perspective, and even institutional choice. This book offers a new framework for reconciling effective administration with the requirements of democratic government. Instead of thinking in terms of organizational structure and management, Kettl suggests, administrators and theorists need to focus on "governance,"or links between government and its broader environment—political, social, and administrative. Government is the collection of institutions that act with authority and create formal obligations; governance is the set of processes and institutions, formal and informal, through which social action occurs. Linking government and governance, Kettl concludes, is the foundation for understanding the theory and practice of government in twenty-first century America—for making public programs work better and for securing the values on which the American republic has been built.

Language: English

Pages: 224

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Release: September 03, 2002

ISBN: 0801870496

ISBN 13: 9780801870491

More books from Donald F. Kettl

The Next Government of the United States: Why Our Institutions Fail Us and How to Fix Them

3.2/5 ( ratings)

The Politics of the Administrative Process

3.3/5 ( ratings)

System Under Stress: Homeland Security and American Politics

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Team Bush

Escaping Jurassic Government: How to Recover America's Lost Commitment to Competence

3.5/5 ( ratings)

The Global Public Management Revolution: A Report on the Transformation of Governance

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Sharing Power: Public Governance and Private Markets

Can Governments Earn Our Trust?

3.2/5 ( ratings)

Area and Administration

The Politics of the Administrative Process

Trump's Wall: The Battle on Immigration

Deficit Politics: Public Budgeting In Its Institutional And Historical Context

Making Health Reform Work: The View From The States

Civil Service Reform: Building a Government that Works

The Transformation of Governance: Public Administration for the Twenty-First Century (Interpreting American Politics)

Improving Government Performance: An Owner's Manual

Bridgebuilders: How Government Can Transcend Boundaries to Solve Big Problems

The Department of Homeland Security's First Year: A Report Card

Politics of the Administrative Process

Inside the Reinvention Machine: Appraising Governmental Reform

Rate this book!

Write a review?