Handbook of Public Administration - hardcover

`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 quantitative performance 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.