The Case for Bureaucracy

The Case for Bureaucracy
Author: Charles T. Goodsell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1985
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

"The Case for Bureaucracy" vigorously makes the argument that the public servants and administrative institutions of government in America are among the best in the world. Contrary to popular myth, they are not sources of great waste or threat to liberty, but social assets of critical value to a functioning democracy. In presenting his case, Goodsell covers many aspects of public administration and draws on current events to bring the material alive and up-to-date. This new edition incorporates September 11th and its consequences for public administration. Also a complete assessment is made of the Reinventing Government movement and related reforms.

The Case for Bureaucracy

The Case for Bureaucracy
Author: Charles T. Goodsell
Publisher: CQ Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2004
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Bureaucracy despised, disparaged, and defended -- What citizens experience from bureaucracy -- More bureaucracy myths to delete -- Ask the impossible of bureaucracy? Easy! -- Looking closer at those bureaucrats -- Bureaucratic bigness and badness reconsidered -- Fads and fundamentals of bureaucracy.

The New Case for Bureaucracy

The New Case for Bureaucracy
Author: Charles T. Goodsell
Publisher: CQ Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2014-02-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1483311554

Charles Goodsell has long taken the position that U.S. bureaucracy is neither a generalized failure nor sinkhole of waste as mythologized by anti-government ideologues. Rather, it is one of the most effective and innovate sets of administrative institutions of any government in the world today. Indispensable to our democracy, it keeps government reliable and dependable to the citizens it serves. However, The New Case for Bureaucracy goes beyond empirically verifying its quality. Now an extended essay, written in a conversational tone, Goodsell expects readers to form their own judgments. At a time when Congress is locked in partisan and factional deadlock, he argues for the increased importance of bureaucrats and discusses how federal agencies must battle to keep alive in terms of resources and be strong enough to retain the integrity of their missions.

Outlandish Perspectives on Public Administration

Outlandish Perspectives on Public Administration
Author: Charles T. Goodsell
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2021-11-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1527577805

Not all collections of an author’s past works need be a dull revisitation of the best-forgotten. This book brings together Charles T. Goodsell’s works on public administration, some of which are of ancient vintage or go outside the field for inspiration, possibly earning the appellation ‘outlandish’. Such essays draw from fields including symbol analysis, theory of art, room phenomenology, and theories of public space. The book also deals with more orthodox topics, such as bureau culture, government contracting, and the early New Deal. The author’s methodological biases, placed in full view, will assure controversy. The book ends by encouraging young new scholars to have fun by picking unusual topics and treating them at a fresh angle.

Public Values and Public Interest

Public Values and Public Interest
Author: Barry Bozeman
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2007-10-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781589014015

Economic individualism and market-based values dominate today's policymaking and public management circles—often at the expense of the common good. In his new book, Barry Bozeman demonstrates the continuing need for public interest theory in government. Public Values and Public Interest offers a direct theoretical challenge to the "utility of economic individualism," the prevailing political theory in the western world. The book's arguments are steeped in a practical and practicable theory that advances public interest as a viable and important measure in any analysis of policy or public administration. According to Bozeman, public interest theory offers a dynamic and flexible approach that easily adapts to changing situations and balances today's market-driven attitudes with the concepts of common good advocated by Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, and John Dewey. In constructing the case for adopting a new governmental paradigm based on what he terms "managing publicness," Bozeman demonstrates why economic indices alone fail to adequately value social choice in many cases. He explores the implications of privatization of a wide array of governmental services—among them Social Security, defense, prisons, and water supplies. Bozeman constructs analyses from both perspectives in an extended study of genetically modified crops to compare the policy outcomes using different core values and questions the public value of engaging in the practice solely for the sake of cheaper food. Thoughtful, challenging, and timely, Public Values and Public Interest shows how the quest for fairness can once again play a full part in public policy debates and public administration.

Citizen, Customer, Partner

Citizen, Customer, Partner
Author: John Clayton Thomas
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2014-12-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317478584

For almost a half a century, scholars and practitioners have debated what the connections should be between public administration and the public. Does the public serve principally as citizen-owners, those to whom administrators are responsible? Are members of the public more appropriately viewed as the customers of government? Or, in an increasingly networked world, do they serve more as the partners of public administrators in the production of public services? This book starts from the premise that the public comes to government not principally in one role but in all three roles, as citizens and customers and partners. The purpose of the book is to address the dual challenge that reality implies: (1) to help public administrators and other public officials to understand the complex nature of the public they face, and (2) to provide recommendations for how public administrators can most effectively interact with the public in the different roles. Using this comprehensive perspective, Citizen, Customer, Partner helps students, practitioners, and scholars understand when and how the public should be integrated into the practice of public administration. Most chapters in Citizen, Customer, Partner include multiple boxed cases that illustrate the chapter’s content with real-world examples. The book concludes with an extremely useful Appendix that collects and summarizes the 40 Design Principles – specific advice for public organizations on working with the public as customers, partners, and citizens.

Administrative Discretion in Action

Administrative Discretion in Action
Author: Amanda M. Olejarski
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2013
Genre: Law
ISBN: 073917858X

Given that this book is written for scholars, practitioners, students, and community members, it emphasizes praxis, the critical interface between public administration theory and the practice of eminent domain. This book is the most comprehensive analysis on eminent domain in...

Politics of the Administrative Process

Politics of the Administrative Process
Author: Donald F. Kettl
Publisher: CQ Press
Total Pages: 515
Release: 2020-01-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1544374313

"Kettl′s Politics of the Administrative Process continues to resonate well with students of public administration because it discusses key concepts and theories in a straightforward, cogent, and contemporary manner that both faculty and students appreciate." —Brian Bulla, Appalachian State University Efficient public administration requires a delicate balance—the bureaucracy must be powerful enough to be effective, but also accountable to elected officials and citizens. Donald F. Kettl understands that the push and pull of political forces in a democracy make the functions of bureaucracy contentious, but no less crucial. Politics of the Administrative Process gives students a realistic, relevant, and well-researched view of the field while remaining reader-friendly with engaging vignettes and rich examples. With a unique focus on policymaking and politics, the Eighth Edition continues its strong emphasis on politics, accountability, and performance.

Preventing Regulatory Capture

Preventing Regulatory Capture
Author: Daniel Carpenter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 531
Release: 2014
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107036089

Leading scholars from across the social sciences present empirical evidence that the obstacle of regulatory capture is more surmountable than previously thought.

Why Public Service Matters

Why Public Service Matters
Author: R. Durant
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 568
Release: 2014-10-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137069570

Why Public Service Matters conveys the importance, purpose, and nobility of a career as a civil servant in the United States. It does so, however, with an unflinching eye on the realpolitik that drives public administration in America's "compensatory state" and on the pitfalls of reformers' focus on bureaucratic, rather than democratic, administration. The book links the nation's ability to handle contemporary policy problems with the strategic, tactical, and normative quality of public management. In doing so, it offers newcomers a rare, concise, and accessible overview of the field. Readers will gain an appreciation for the challenges, choices, and opportunities facing public managers as they help advance a sense of common purpose informed by democratic constitutional values in twenty-first century America.