Global Dimensions of Public Administration and Governance: A Comparative Voyage

Book description

A comparative, interdisciplinary examination of the mechanisms behind public administration

Global Dimensions of Public Administration and Governance is a comprehensive, comparative text on the structure and function of governments around the world. Written by two of the field's leading public administration scholars, this book provides an interdisciplinary perspective and a global, historical, and theoretical examination of the management and governance of the modern state. Readers learn how territory, bureaucracy, and political systems influence policy and reform in over thirty countries, and how these mechanisms affect the everyday lives of citizens. This comparative approach features rich examples of how policy is shaped by culture, and how modern policy principles are filtered to fit a country's needs and expectations. Chapters conclude with comparative analyses that help readers better-understand the role and position of government in the contemporary world, both in democratic societies and less-than-democratic environments.

Governance doesn't happen in a vacuum. Those responsible for policy, regulation, and reform take cues from history, current events, and visions for the future to inform thinking on matters that can potentially affect a large number of everyday lives. This book illustrates the thought process, providing the necessary insight these important decisions require.

  • Understand the relationship between structure and function of government

  • Learn how policy is culture-dependent

  • Examine the political and societal contexts of reform

  • Discover the myriad forms of modern bureaucracy

  • The various social sciences provide valuable information and perspectives for those involved in public administration. Those perspectives converge here to form a thorough, well-rounded, examination of the success and failure possible, and the mechanisms through which they take place. Global Dimensions of Public Administration and Governance provides a detailed, wide-ranging look at how modern governments operate, how they got this far, and where they're headed for the future.

    Table of contents

    1. Cover Page
    2. Title Page
    3. Copyright
    4. CONTENTS
    5. LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
    6. FOREWORD
    7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    8. THE AUTHORS
    9. CHAPTER ONE: GLOBALIZATION AND GOVERNMENT
      1. Levels of Analysis and Understanding
      2. Globalization
      3. Combining a Global and Comparative Perspective
      4. Combining the Studies of Administration and Politics
      5. Audience for and Structure of This Book
      6. Concluding Remarks: “Flying” and Comparing across the Globe
    10. PART ONE: THE ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, AND DISSEMINATION OF GOVERNMENT: STRUCTURING TERRITORY AND ORGANIZATION
      1. CHAPTER TWO: THE ROOTS AND DEVELOPMENT OF GOVERNANCE, GOVERNMENT, AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
        1. Types of Governing Associations
        2. All Government and Governance Started Local
        3. The Emergence of Territorial States as Upper-Local Polities
        4. A Global Model of Government Development
        5. The Development of Thinking about Government: From Political Theory to Public Administration
        6. Comparing Government Models: Concluding Remarks
      2. CHAPTER THREE: STRUCTURING GOVERNANCE AND GOVERNMENT
        1. Territoriality and Property
        2. Territorialization of the World
        3. International Boundaries
        4. Subnational Jurisdictions: Historical Trends
        5. Subnational Jurisdictions: The Contemporary Situation
        6. Bureaucracy as Organizational Structure: The Bureaucratization of the World
        7. The Influence of Colonization
        8. Concluding Remarks: Boundaries Creating Polities
      3. CHAPTER FOUR: STATE MAKING, NATION BUILDING, AND CITIZENSHIP
        1. Defining State and Nation
        2. State Making: Models and Explanations
        3. The Separation of Organized Religion and the State: A Recent Phenomenon?
        4. Nation Building: From Subjects to Citizens
        5. Citizenship as Layered Phenomenon
        6. A Future for State, Nation, and Citizenship?
      4. CHAPTER FIVE: POLITICAL-ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS AND MULTILEVEL GOVERNMENT
        1. Basic Distinctions of Political Systems
        2. Party-Political and Bureaucratic-Prominent Systems
        3. The Three Branches of Government and Core Features of Democratic Political Systems
        4. The Structure of Government Departments
        5. Multilevel and Multiactor Government and Governance
        6. Concluding Remarks
      5. CHAPTER SIX: BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATION AND CULTURE
        1. Defining Bureaucracy: The Influence of Max Weber and His Fears
        2. Bureaucracy in the Evolution of Human Communities: The Origin of the Stereotype?
        3. Societal Culture
        4. Organizational Culture
        5. Perceptions of Public Individuals
        6. Sucking Water from Straws or Opening the Tap in the Kitchen
      6. CHAPTER SEVEN: ORGANIZATION, MANAGEMENT, AND POLICY
        1. The Human Side of Public Enterprise: Management, Organizations, and Behavior in Comparative Public Administration
        2. The Public Management Revolution: Comparative Views
        3. Comparing the Sectors
        4. The Implementation of NPM in Western Democracies
        5. The Implementation of NPM in Other World Regions
        6. The “Dinosaur Syndrome” and the Comparative Movement: A Midrange Comment
        7. The Organization and Management of Global Policy and Public Administration
        8. Summary
      7. CHAPTER EIGHT: BUREAUCRACY AS PERSONNEL SYSTEM AND POLITICAL-ADMINISTRATIVE RELATIONS
        1. The Importance of the Personnel Function for Responsive Government
        2. Defining Bureaucracy as Personnel System: Max Weber's Juridical Perspective
        3. Categories of Public Servants in a Sociological Perspective
        4. Variation in the Size of the Civil Service
        5. Political-Administrative Relations: Intertwinement, Politicization, and Consultation
        6. Development of the Personnel Function in Developed Countries
        7. Concluding Comments
    11. PART TWO: MANAGING POLICIES: CONTINUITY, CHANGE, AND DIVERSITY
      1. CHAPTER NINE: TRADITIONAL GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES I
        1. Atrocities of Man and Nature: National Defense and Emergency Management
        2. Internal Security: Enforcing Law and Order
        3. The Judiciary System: One State under the Rule of Law
        4. Comparing Defense, Police, and Judiciary across Nations
      2. CHAPTER TEN: TRADITIONAL GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES II
        1. Economy and Finance
        2. Tax Reforms: Taking for Giving
        3. Comparing Economy, Finance, and Taxation Systems across Nations
      3. CHAPTER ELEVEN: SOCIAL-ECONOMIC SERVICES
        1. Energy Management
        2. Planning and Zoning
        3. Industry and Trade
        4. Comparing Energy Management, Planning and Zoning, and Industry and Trade across Nations
      4. CHAPTER TWELVE: WELFARE SERVICES AND POLICIES
        1. Health Care
        2. Education
        3. Social Security
        4. Comparing Health Care, Education, and Social Services across Nations
      5. CHAPTER THIRTEEN: A VISION FOR COMPARATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICE
        1. Comparison in Motion: Divergence and Convergence across Time and States
        2. The Comparative Approach in Service of Interconnectedness, Emulation, and Policy Transfer
        3. Comparative Public Administration and Governance: Between Transfer and Diffusion
        4. Horizons for Comparative Public Administration and Governance
        5. Summary and Final Remarks
      6. APPENDIX ONE: STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES—CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
        1. The Function of Comparison in Society and in the Social Sciences
        2. The Importance of Comparison in the Study of Public Administration
        3. The Development of Comparative Public Administration
      7. APPENDIX TWO: MOTIVES, TYPES AND THEORIES, METHODS FOR, AND CHALLENGES OF COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES
        1. Motives for Comparison
        2. Theories, Methods, and Types of Comparison
        3. Challenges of Comparative Research
    12. BIBLIOGRAPHY
    13. INDEX

    Product information

    • Title: Global Dimensions of Public Administration and Governance: A Comparative Voyage
    • Author(s): Eran Vigoda-Gadot, Jos Raadschelders
    • Release date: February 2015
    • Publisher(s): Jossey-Bass
    • ISBN: 9781119026198