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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: PUBLIC MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

17.1 The evolution of bureaucracies. In Western Europe: from royal patriarchy to modern bureaucracy. In the USA: from spoils-based to merit-based. Weber’s model. Bureaucracy's twentieth-century zenith: waging war and providing welfare. The contemporary emphasis on economy (spend less), efficiency (spend well) and effectiveness (spend wisely) (pp. 355-7).

 

17.2 Recruitment. Always an issue. Unified vs. departmental approaches. Importance of legal background in some unified systems. Corps system (pp. 357-8).

 

17.3 Organization of the public sector. Departments, divisions and non-departmental bodies. Departments as the Weberian centrepiece. Divisions as operating units. Non-departmental bodies: state-owned enterprises, service delivery agencies, regulatory agencies, advisory bodies. Autonomy of bureaus in the USA (pp. 358-64).

 

17.4 Control and accountability. Multiple accountabilities of senior public officials. Internal controls: ministerial direction, formal regulation and professional standards. Ministerial advisers and the French cabinet. External scrutiny: legislature and the judiciary, ombudsman, interest groups and the media (pp. 364-6).

 

17.5 Components of new public management (NPM). The critique of Weber. Osborne and Gaebler. Reform in the English-speaking world greater than that in continental Europe, where the public sector is embedded in legal codes. New Zealand's experience. The impact of NPM on accountability (pp. 366-8).

 

17.6 Bureaucracies in authoritarian states: a powerful force. Can be a modernizing force: e.g. Egypt in Nasser’s early years. Bureau­cratic authoritarianism: mainly Latin American regimes in which technocrats in the bureaucracy imposed economic stability under the protection of a military government, repressing popular movements. But typically the authoritarian bureaucracy is overstaffed and ill-directed, as in contemporary Egypt. Gigantic scale under communism. Fascism preferred the leadership of men: government without administration (pp. 368-72).

 

17.7 Bureaucracies in illiberal democracies: often weakened by the personal relationship between president and people, which can by-pass and marginalize the bureaucracy. Presidential zeal may be defined in opposition to an unresponsive bureaucracy (‘I get things done’). Public management operates in a somewhat uncoordinated way, with separate bureaucratic islands serving the interests of their local managers and limiting political control. Corruption is usually endemic (pp. 372-5).