Handbook of Public Administration, 3rd Edition

Preface

In the Preface to the second edition, the senior editor of this Handbook reflected on the dynamism of public administration in the seven-year span between the first and second editions. At the time, dynamism was benchmarked against a variety of developments associated with growth and evolution of government, among them blue-ribbon reform commissions, reformist books, and realignments of political power and its policy and administrative aftermath.

The previous edition of the Handbook appeared nineteen years ago. The reform theme that figured so prominently in the preface to that edition has given way to a theme of revolution in this third edition. If revolution seems like hyperbole, consider major events since 1996 and how they have ...