The Palgrave Handbook of Public Administration and Management in Europe

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-liii

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2. Public Administration and Management in Europe

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Introduction

      • Edoardo Ongaro, Sandra van Thiel

      Pages 3-10

   3. Public Administration and Public Management Research in Europe: Traditions and Trends

      • Edoardo Ongaro, Sandra van Thiel, Andrew Massey, Jon Pierre, Hellmut Wollmann

      Pages 11-39

   4. Education and Training in Public Administration and Management in Europe

      • Christoph Reichard, Eckhard Schröter

      Pages 41-60

   5. Languages and Public Administration in Europe

      • Edoardo Ongaro, Sandra van Thiel

      Pages 61-98

3. Public Management Themes

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 99-99

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   2. Strategic Management in Public Services Organizations: Developing a European Perspective

      • Ewan Ferlie, Salvador Parrado

      Pages 101-119

   3. Leadership in Europe’s Public Sector

      • Anne Drumaux, Paul Joyce

      Pages 121-139

   4. Public Budgets and Budgeting in Europe: State of the Art and Future Challenges

      • Iris Saliterer, Mariafrancesca Sicilia, Ileana Steccolini

      Pages 141-163

   5. IPSAS, EPSAS and Other Challenges in European Public Sector Accounting and Auditing

      • Isabel Brusca, Eugenio Caperchione, Sandra Cohen, Francesca Manes-Rossi

      Pages 165-185

   6. Accountability in Liberal Democratic, Parliamentary Systems

      • Leanne-Marie McCarthy-Cotter, Matthew Flinders

      Pages 187-206

   7. Performance Management in Europe: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone?

      • Wouter Van Dooren, Cornelia Hoffmann

      Pages 207-225

   8. Explaining Citizen Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction with Public Services

      • Steven Van de Walle

      Pages 227-241

   9. Public Personnel Reforms and Public Sector HRM in Europe

      • Peter Leisink, Eva Knies

      Pages 243-259

   10. Public Service Motivation: State of the Art and Conceptual Cleanup

       • Wouter Vandenabeele, Adrian Ritz, Oliver Neumann

       Pages 261-278

   11. Ethics and Integrity

       • Michael Macaulay

       Pages 279-289

   12. The Public Network Scholarly Community in Europe: Main Characteristics and Future Developments

       • Daniela Cristofoli, Myrna Mandell, Marco Meneguzzo

       Pages 291-310

   13. Collaborative Governance and the Third Sector: Something Old, Something New

       • Taco Brandsen, Karen Johnston

       Pages 311-325

   14. Agencification in Europe

       • Koen Verhoest

       Pages 327-346

This Handbook offers a systematic review of state-of-the-art knowledge on public administration in Europe. Covering the theoretical, epistemological and practical aspects of the field, it focuses on how public administration operates and is studied in European countries. In sixty-three chapters, written by leading scholars, this Handbook considers the uniqueness of the European situation through an interdisciplinary and comparative lens, focusing on the administrative diversity which results from the multiplicity of countries, languages, schools of thought and streams of investigation across Europe. 

It addresses issues such as multi-level administration and governance, intensive cross country cooperation in administrative reform policy, and public accountability under different systems. It also considers the issue of welfare service delivery, at a time of major economic and societal challenges, as well as understudied emerging issues like Islamic Public Administration and the dynamics of public sector negotiations.


With contributions from key experts in Public Administration and Public Management, this cutting edge Handbook offers a significant contribution to the field of comparative public administration, policy and management.

• economics
• public administration
• Public Management
• Public Services Organizations
• Europe’s Public Sector
• Public budgets
• public sector accounting
• Performance management
• Collaborative Governance
• Agencification
• e-government
• Public Private partnerships
• Policy Implementation
• Comparative regulatory regimes
• Welfare administration
• New Public Management
• Neo-Weberian State
• Islamic Public Administration
• Behavioural Public Administration
• policy advisory bodies

“It always was an ambition of human beings to map what is known, and to do so in a systematic way. This is a dynamic process since knowledge creates realities, but realities also create knowledge. For these reasons, it is good to take stock of what is known in a particular field. This book is taking stock of Public Administration in Europe as well as of the distinctiveness of European Public Administration. With its 63 chapters it is comprehensive in its ambition.” (Geert Bouckaert, Professor of Public Management, K.U. Leuven, Belgium)

“Recognizing that the art of effective government in contemporary society is now also dependent on social science, Ongaro and van Thiel have delivered an ambitious scholarly project to document administrative diversity and complexity in Europe. Grounded in a parliamentary-legal context, this long awaited set of analyses by prominent scholars provides a compass for delivering on governments’ promises, a comparative framework for scholarly research across borders, and a model that public administration and management communities in other regions of the world--governed under diverse systems--should not only teach, but replicate as an intellectual resource.”  (Marc Holzer, University Professor and Founding Dean Emeritus, School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University, USA)

“Public administration in Europe is doing remarkably well - both as a field of practice and as an interdisciplinary field of study. Contrary to some expectations the modern state, its organization and its management are more important and relevant than ever, and European scholars are playing an ever more prominent role in describing and explaining these developments. This Handbook offers a fascinating overview over the unique administrative and theoretical diversity of Europe, and for the first time it assembles a truly European group of PA scholars, from north and south as well as from east and west. It is a milestone for many years tocome.” (Werner Jann, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Administration and Organisation, University of Potsdam, Germany)

“This comprehensive collection is strongly recommended as the essential source on European public administration and management. A compelling feature is that the book includes so many of the right experts writing on the most pertinent subjects in this field.” (John Halligan, Professor of Public Administration, University of Canberra, Australia)

“True understanding is comparative and contextual in nature. This handbook embodies that spirit and will greatly help advance our understanding of public administration and policy in Europe. It is not only comprehensive and systematic but also substantive and state of the art! A must-have for those who are interested in Europe and those who are interested in comparing public management and policy across national boundaries.” (Kaifeng Yang, Dean and Professor, School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University, China, and Professor, Florida State University, US)

“This is an authoritative collection of key readings on Public Administration and Management covering all key topics and perspectives. While its geographic focus is Europe, indeed right because of the uniqueness of depth of analysis into the context of this region, readers in all parts of the world will find it most useful.” (M. Ramesh, Professor of Governance and Public Policy, Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore)

“This Handbook provides a comprehensive and informative collection of key readings on the public sector in Europe.   Anyone interested in public administration in Europe can profit from reading this volume.”  (B. Guy Peters, Maurice Falk Professor of American Government, University of Pittsburgh, USA)

 “When brilliant scholars are joined together by equally competent editors - in a perspective that is all-encompassing across the countries of a regionand the generations of scholars - the outcome is a marvellous gift for the entire public administration and management community, the Latin American and the global one. We do have in our hands a richly designed mosaic of theories, doctrines, approaches, methods and practices, corresponding to all the most relevant themes in the field. Charting the territory of public administration and management in Europe provides an invaluable map for the comparative administration movement across the globe. Focus and locus are intertwined to generate good knowledge.” (Bianor Scelza Cavalcanti, International Director, Getulio Vargas Foundation, Brazil)

“Now we have a very significant and challenging handbook of Public Administration and Management contextualized to contemporary Europe, where the science and practice of public administration are strongly developed. It represents a basis for other regions of the world to undertake comparative research and ultimately further the general study ofpublic management in the global society.” (Koichiro Agata, Professor of Public Administration, Waseda University, Japan)

• Department for Public Leadership and Social Enterprise—PulSE Faculty of Business and Law , The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

  Edoardo Ongaro

• Institute for Management Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

  Sandra Van Thiel

Edoardo Ongaro is Professor at the Open University, UK, and President of the European Group for Public Administration. He is Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences of the United Kingdom.  


Sandra van Thiel is Professor at Radboud University, and Director of the Institute for Management Research at the Nijmegen School of Management, the Netherlands.

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