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PublicAdministration

An InterdisciplinaryCritical Analysis

edited by

Eran VigodaUniversity of Haifa

Haifa, Israel

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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC POLICY

A Comprehensive Publication Program

Executive Editor

JACK RABINProfessor of Public Administration and Public Policy

School of Public AffairsThe Capital College

The Pennsylvania State UniversityHarrisburgMiddletown, Pennsylvania

1. Public Administration as a Developing Discipline (in two parts), Robert T. Golem-biewski

2. Comparative National Policies on Health Care, Milton I. Roemer, M.D.3. Exclusionary Injustice: The Problem of Illegally Obtained Evidence, Steven R.

Schlesinger4. Personnel Management in Government: Politics and Process, Jay M. Shafritz,

Walter L. Balk, Albert C. Hyde, and David H. Rosenbloom5. Organization Development in Public Administration (in two parts), edited by Robert

T. Golembiewski and William B. Eddy6. Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective, Second Edition, Revised and

Expanded, Ferrel Heady7. Approaches to Planned Change (in two parts), Robert T. Golembiewski8. Program Evaluation at HEW (in three parts), edited by James G. Abert9. The States and the Metropolis, Patricia S. Florestano and Vincent L. Marando

10. Personnel Management in Government: Politics and Process, Second Edition,Revised and Expanded, Jay M. Shafritz, Albert C. Hyde, and David H. Rosenbloom

11. Changing Bureaucracies: Understanding the Organization Before Selecting the Ap-proach, William A. Medina

12. Handbook on Public Budgeting and Financial Management, edited by Jack Rabinand Thomas D. Lynch

13. Encyclopedia of Policy Studies, edited by Stuart S. Nagel14. Public Administration and Law: Bench v. Bureau in the United States, David H.

Rosenbloom15. Handbook on Public Personnel Administration and Labor Relations, edited by Jack

Rabin, Thomas Vocino, W. Bartley Hildreth, and Gerald J. Miller16. Public Budgeting and Finance: Behavioral, Theoretical, and Technical Perspec-

tives, Third Edition, edited by Robert T. Golembiewski and Jack Rabin17. Organizational Behavior and Public Management, Debra W. Stewart and G. David

Garson18. The Politics of Terrorism: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, edited by

Michael Stohl19. Handbook of Organization Management, edited by William B. Eddy20. Organization Theory and Management, edited by Thomas D. Lynch21. Labor Relations in the Public Sector, Richard C. Kearney22. Politics and Administration: Woodrow Wilson and American Public Administration,

edited by Jack Rabin and James S. Bowman23. Making and Managing Policy: Formulation, Analysis, Evaluation, edited by G.

Ronald Gilbert

24. Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective, Third Edition, Revised, FerrelHeady

25. Decision Making in the Public Sector, edited by Lloyd G. Nigro26. Managing Administration, edited by Jack Rabin, Samuel Humes, and Brian S.

Morgan27. Public Personnel Update, edited by Michael Cohen and Robert T. Golembiewski28. State and Local Government Administration, edited by Jack Rabin and Don Dodd29. Public Administration: A Bibliographic Guide to the Literature, Howard E. McCurdy30. Personnel Management in Government: Politics and Process, Third Edition,

Revised and Expanded, Jay M. Shafritz, Albert C. Hyde, and David H. Rosenbloom31. Handbook of Information Resource Management, edited by Jack Rabin and

Edward M. Jackowski32. Public Administration in Developed Democracies: A Comparative Study, edited by

Donald C. Rowat33. The Politics of Terrorism: Third Edition, Revised and Expanded, edited by Michael

Stohl34. Handbook on Human Services Administration, edited by Jack Rabin and Marcia B.

Steinhauer35. Handbook of Public Administration, edited by Jack Rabin, W. Bartley Hildreth, and

Gerald J. Miller36. Ethics for Bureaucrats: An Essay on Law and Values, Second Edition, Revised and

Expanded, John A. Rohr37. The Guide to the Foundations of Public Administration, Daniel W. Martin38. Handbook of Strategic Management, edited by Jack Rabin, Gerald J. Miller, and W.

Bartley Hildreth39. Terrorism and Emergency Management: Policy and Administration, William L.

Waugh, Jr.40. Organizational Behavior and Public Management: Second Edition, Revised and Ex-

panded, Michael L. Vasu, Debra W. Stewart, and G. David Garson41. Handbook of Comparative and Development Public Administration, edited by Ali

Farazmand42. Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective, Fourth Edition, Ferrel Heady43. Government Financial Management Theory, Gerald J. Miller44. Personnel Management in Government: Politics and Process, Fourth Edition, Re-

vised and Expanded, Jay M. Shafritz, Norma M. Riccucci, David H. Rosenbloom,and Albert C. Hyde

45. Public Productivity Handbook, edited by Marc Holzer46. Handbook of Public Budgeting, edited by Jack Rabin47. Labor Relations in the Public Sector: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded,

Richard C. Kearney48. Handbook of Organizational Consultation, edited by Robert T. Golembiewski49. Handbook of Court Administration and Management, edited by Steven W. Hays

and Cole Blease Graham, Jr.50. Handbook of Comparative Public Budgeting and Financial Management, edited by

Thomas D. Lynch and Lawrence L. Martin51. Handbook of Organizational Behavior, edited by Robert T. Golembiewski52. Handbook of Administrative Ethics, edited by Terry L. Cooper53. Encyclopedia of Policy Studies: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, edited by

Stuart S. Nagel54. Handbook of Regulation and Administrative Law, edited by David H. Rosenbloom

and Richard D. Schwartz55. Handbook of Bureaucracy, edited by Ali Farazmand56. Handbook of Public Sector Labor Relations, edited by Jack Rabin, Thomas Vocino,

W. Bartley Hildreth, and Gerald J. Miller57. Practical Public Management, Robert T. Golembiewski58. Handbook of Public Personnel Administration, edited by Jack Rabin, Thomas

Vocino, W. Bartley Hildreth, and Gerald J. Miller59. Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective, Fifth Edition, Ferrel Heady

60. Handbook of Debt Management, edited by Gerald J. Miller61. Public Administration and Law: Second Edition, David H. Rosenbloom and

Rosemary OLeary62. Handbook of Local Government Administration, edited by John J. Gargan63. Handbook of Administrative Communication, edited by James L. Garnett and Alex-

ander Kouzmin64. Public Budgeting and Finance: Fourth Edition, Revised and Expanded, edited by

Robert T. Golembiewski and Jack Rabin65. Handbook of Public Administration: Second Edition, edited by Jack Rabin, W.

Bartley Hildreth, and Gerald J. Miller66. Handbook of Organization Theory and Management: The Philosophical Approach,

edited by Thomas D. Lynch and Todd J. Dicker67. Handbook of Public Finance, edited by Fred Thompson and Mark T. Green68. Organizational Behavior and Public Management: Third Edition, Revised and Ex-

panded, Michael L. Vasu, Debra W. Stewart, and G. David Garson69. Handbook of Economic Development, edited by Kuotsai Tom Liou70. Handbook of Health Administration and Policy, edited by Anne Osborne Kilpatrick

and James A. Johnson71. Handbook of Research Methods in Public Administration, edited by Gerald J. Miller

and Marcia L. Whicker72. Handbook on Taxation, edited by W. Bartley Hildreth and James A. Richardson73. Handbook of Comparative Public Administration in the Asia-Pacific Basin, edited by

Hoi-kwok Wong and Hon S. Chan74. Handbook of Global Environmental Policy and Administration, edited by Dennis L.

Soden and Brent S. Steel75. Handbook of State Government Administration, edited by John J. Gargan76. Handbook of Global Legal Policy, edited by Stuart S. Nagel77. Handbook of Public Information Systems, edited by G. David Garson78. Handbook of Global Economic Policy, edited by Stuart S. Nagel79. Handbook of Strategic Management: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded,

edited by Jack Rabin, Gerald J. Miller, and W. Bartley Hildreth80. Handbook of Global International Policy, edited by Stuart S. Nagel81. Handbook of Organizational Consultation: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded,

edited by Robert T. Golembiewski82. Handbook of Global Political Policy, edited by Stuart S. Nagel83. Handbook of Global Technology Policy, edited by Stuart S. Nagel84. Handbook of Criminal Justice Administration, edited by M. A. DuPont-Morales,

Michael K. Hooper, and Judy H. Schmidt85. Labor Relations in the Public Sector: Third Edition, edited by Richard C. Kearney86. Handbook of Administrative Ethics: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, edited

by Terry L. Cooper87. Handbook of Organizational Behavior: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded,

edited by Robert T. Golembiewski88. Handbook of Global Social Policy, edited by Stuart S. Nagel and Amy Robb89. Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective, Sixth Edition, Ferrel Heady90. Handbook of Public Quality Management, edited by Ronald J. Stupak and Peter M.

Leitner91. Handbook of Public Management Practice and Reform, edited by Kuotsai Tom Liou92. Personnel Management in Government: Politics and Process, Fifth Edition, Jay M.

Shafritz, Norma M. Riccucci, David H. Rosenbloom, Katherine C. Naff, and AlbertC. Hyde

93. Handbook of Crisis and Emergency Management, edited by Ali Farazmand94. Handbook of Comparative and Development Public Administration: Second Edition,

Revised and Expanded, edited by Ali Farazmand95. Financial Planning and Management in Public Organizations, Alan Walter Steiss

and Emeka O. Cyprian Nwagwu96. Handbook of International Health Care Systems, edited by Khi V. Thai, Edward T.

Wimberley, and Sharon M. McManus

97. Handbook of Monetary Policy, edited by Jack Rabin and Glenn L. Stevens98. Handbook of Fiscal Policy, edited by Jack Rabin and Glenn L. Stevens99. Public Administration: An Interdisciplinary Critical Analysis, edited by Eran Vigoda

100. Ironies in Organizational Development: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded,edited by Robert T. Golembiewski

101. Science and Technology of Terrorism and Counterterrorism, edited by Tushar K.Ghosh, Mark A. Prelas, Dabir S. Viswanath, and Sudarshan K. Loyalka

102. Strategic Management for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, Alan Walter Steiss103. Case Studies in Public Budgeting and Financial Management: Second Edition, Re-

vised and Expanded, edited by Aman Khan and W. Bartley Hildreth

Additional Volumes in Preparation

Principles and Practices of Public Administration, edited by Jack Rabin, Robert F.Munzenrider, and Sherrie M. Bartell

Handbook of Developmental Policy Studies, edited by Stuart S. Nagel

Handbook of Conflict Management, edited by William J. Pammer, Jr., and JerriKillian

ANNALS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

1. Public Administration: History and Theory in Contemporary Perspective, edited byJoseph A. Uveges, Jr.

2. Public Administration Education in Transition, edited by Thomas Vocino and Rich-ard Heimovics

3. Centenary Issues of the Pendleton Act of 1883, edited by David H. Rosenbloomwith the assistance of Mark A. Emmert

4. Intergovernmental Relations in the 1980s, edited by Richard H. Leach5. Criminal Justice Administration: Linking Practice and Research, edited by William

A. Jones, Jr.

To my small and steadfast family:Shlomit, who had to endure my all too frequent engagement in dinosaur affairs,

and little Omri, who is still too small to practice public administrationbut already wise enough to manage our family life from his leading-baby position.

Preface

Have you looked outside lately at the world of government and administration?Have you noticed a strange scent in the air indicating the arrival of a new spiritin the public sector? Some people say it is already here. Others say we havewitnessed only the edge of the change. Yet by all definitions public administrationat the beginning of the 21st century is moving in a new direction. Today, it isalready much different from what it used to be 40, 30, and even 20 or 10 yearsago. In the coming years it is going to change even more.

This volume is all about contemporary transformations in public adminis-tration and about possible future developments. How may governments actionsbe improved? How may public administrations services be revitalized? Can bu-reaucracies respond to challenges and changes ahead, and with what tools? Whatis the impact of a high-technology environment on our public agencies? How maythe (im)possible goal of effective integration between citizens and governments inan ultradynamic society be reached? What are the implications of such transitionson democratic governments, their stability, and legitimization in the eyes of citi-zens? These questions, as well as others, are among the core issues of this book,which tries to provide a critical analysis of a field in transition. We expect thatsuch an analysis will show the way forward for public administration and willstimulate new thinking that may lead to viable change in the old type of bureau-cracies.

The central assumption of this book is that slowly and gradually, but con-stantly and extensively, a change is being nurtured in public systems and in theattitudes of public managers, politicians, and citizens to the conservative role ofpublic institutions. These transformations carry many challenges, as well as risks,that citizens, governments, and administrators of the future will have to confrontand address. They all represent new alternatives for the evolvement of public

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vi Preface

administration as an art, and perhaps also as a science and a profession (Lynn,1996). The present volume, which is part of a long-standing series on publicadministration and public policy (edited by Professor Jack Rabin, The Pennsylva-nia State University) published by Marcel Dekker, Inc., offers comprehensiveinterdisciplinary reading for scholars, students, and practitioners in the field. Itcombines theoretical, empirical, and comparative critical essays from a varietyof disciplines, all focused on exploration of fresh directions for such an evolution.Our mission, stemming from such a perspective, is to better understand thechanges ahead, which have the potential of building bridges into the future ofmodern democracies.

During the last century, modern societies accomplished remarkableachievements in different fields, many of them thanks to an advanced publicsector. At the dawn of the new millennium, however, various new social problemsstill await the consideration and attention of the state and its administrative sys-tem. To overcome these problems and create effective remedies for the new typeof state ills, there is a need to increase cooperation and collaboration and to shareinformation and knowledge. An interdisciplinary critical perspective on the stateof contemporary public administration, as adopted here, is essential. It suggestsa multilevel, multimethod, and multisystem analysis of current developmentswith a look to the future. Leading and long-influential experts, as well as youngand promising scholars, in political science, public administration, sociology, andmanagement, present attitudes, research findings, opinions, and recommendationsfor a better understanding of the field in the coming years.

The first chapter serves as an introduction to the issues discussed in the fourmain parts. It also tries to suggest a theoretical starting point. More specifically, itfocuses on the roots and foundations of public administration that furnish thebackground and terminology for the discipline. The first three parts contain acollection of original essays, which are the heart of our volume. Each of theseparts represents a separate layer of critical investigation: policy and politics, soci-ety and culture, and organizational management. The fourth part provides a sug-gested interdisciplinary synthesis. It attempts to portray boundaries and orienta-tions for the new generation of public administration and for the way forward.

The books main goal is to shed light on various actual topics in the contem-porary study of public systems. It covers: (1) the emerging conflict between busi-ness and social considerations in modern democracies; (2) developments andparadoxes in public policy analysis; (3) the relationship between politics andadministration, citizens and bureaucracies, and the strategic idea of collaboration;(4) accountability in modern public administration; (5) cultural characteristicsand administrative culture in and around the public sector; (6) ethical dilemmasin the public service; (7) the meaning of work for public-sector employees; (8)competition and business trends in a comparative view; (9) public administrationin a mass-communication and high-information system erathis theme is

Preface vii

strongly related to the function of e-government; (10) managerial strategies, man-agerial reforms, and organizational development in the public sector; (11) popula-tion behavior during mass disasters and their implications for public administra-tion and for modern societies; and (12) the innovative idea of ConsumerCommunication Management (CCM) and marketing in the public sector.

The book endeavors to provide insight into the complexity of the disciplineby combining different levels of analysis into an integral whole, which betteraccords with reality. It is intended as a useful tool for students, scholars, andadministrators, as well as for citizens in quest of more knowledge on how thestate and its executive branches are managed and on the obstacles to better publicperformance. The book also suggests principles for greater effectiveness and ef-ficiency of public management in future generations, when environmental pres-sures will grow together with an increase in citizens demands and needs.

Eran Vigoda

REFERENCES

Lynn, L. E. (1996). Public Management as Art, Science, and Profession. Chatham, NJ:Chatham House.

Acknowledgments

Only a year ago, writing a critical interdisciplinary book on the current state andfuture development of public administration seemed to me an unrealistic mission.In a world of rapid managerial changes, high-speed communication, flexible-learning organizations, and an ultradynamic society, who can provide reliablecriticism that will prove beneficial for the day after tomorrow, not to mentionthe years ahead? After all, rapid changes may make todays criticism irrelevant,anachronistic, and even misleading. However, good friends encouraged me totake this academic journey and make an attempt to uncover some of the possible,if not definite developments in the field. Trying to generate more confidence, oneof these friends even mentioned the dinosaur syndrome.

What is this syndrome? For many of us, he said, public administrationcarries the image of a slow and heavy dinosaur that cant keep up with necessarytransformations of the modern era. Citizens of Western nations are highly criticaland skeptical of potential improvements in this field, and some even believe thatthe public sector, like the dinosaur population, needs to shrink and diminish, ifnot disappear entirely, in the face of the free market. Yet, like the progress ofany heavy creature, the dinosaur of the public sector is moving forward at asnails pace. Slowly, unevenlybut constantly and with great potential for im-provementit does make progress. Consequently, attitudes toward the publicsector are divided between those who cant accept it as it is today and those whocant forgo what it currently offers.

Keeping this metaphor and the advice in mind, I had to make my move.Since riding a dinosaur alone is risky (at least when one does it for the first timein ones life), I invited some of these good friends to join me in this adventure.I was happy to find that most of them showed no fear of dinosaurs. Later on theyexplained that they had actually wanted to ride one for quite a long time and

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x Acknowledgments

were just waiting for the right opportunity. It gave me great pleasure to be ableto offer them such an opportunity. I must also confess that this mutual ride mademe feel much more relaxed; after all, dealing all alone with the grumpy moodsand caprices of the dinosaur is not easy. Now that the journey is over, perhapsthis preliminary decision was the most important one I made. In fact, it was theonly decision I took absolutely alone. While I carry full responsibility for thisvolume as an entire piece, all my later decisions benefited from the sound advice,wisdom, and experience of these friends. Hence I would like to thank them forthe encouragement they provided as well as for their endless good suggestionsand professional comments that greatly improved the final product.

Many have contributed to this volume. I am grateful to my colleagues atthe University of Haifa who have put in time, effort, and ideas to improve thisbook. Other members of Israeli, American, and European universities impartedto this book its international perspective. I am also thankful for the commentsand criticism of other members, reviewers, and professionals who offered healthycriticism on what is meant to be a critical book. All have done a superb profes-sional job, illuminating the possible interdisciplinary tracks along which the fieldis advancing. They are: Ira Sharkansky, Gerald E. Caiden, Naomi J. Caiden,Robert Schwartz, Guy B. Peters, Etai Gilboa, Itzhak Harpaz, Raphael Snir, RivkaAmado, Lynton K. Caldwell, Urs E. Gattiker, Inger Marie Giversen, MichaelHarrison, Robert T. Golembiewski, Carl Miller, Alan Kirschenbaum, Moshe Da-vidow, Arye Globerson, Rami Ben-Yshai, Tony Bovaird, Arie Halachmi, andJack Rabin. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the Department of Politi-cal Science at the University of Haifa, which has always been a natural, inspiring,and supportive habitat for my professional work. On the administrative side Iexpress my appreciation for the proficient work done by the staff of Marcel Dek-ker, Inc., as well as for the support I received from the Research Authority ofthe University of Haifa. Special thanks to Meira Yurkevich, Sandra Daniel, LiatShaked, and Tali Birman.

Lastly, I hope that this book will enrich discussion on the future of thepublic sector from various critical perspectives and disciplines. Hence the bookis dedicated to my current and future students who will have to deal, in classand in practice, with the public administration of tomorrow.

Contents

Preface vAcknowledgments ixContributors xvIntroduction xvii

1. The Legacy of Public Administration: Background and Review 1Eran Vigoda

Part I Politics and Policy Analysis: Players and Interests in theGoverning Process

2. Economic Versus Social Values and Other Dilemmas in PolicyMaking 19Ira Sharkansky

3. Toward More Democratic Governance: Modernizing theAdministrative State in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom,and the United States 37Gerald E. Caiden and Naomi J. Caiden

4. Accountability in New Public Management: An ElusivePhenomenon? 63Robert Schwartz

5. Governing in a Market Era: Alternative Models of Governing 85B. Guy Peters

6. The Quest for Collaboration: Toward a Comprehensive Strategyfor Public Administration 99Eran Vigoda and Etai Gilboa

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xii Contents

Part II Social and Cultural Analysis: Values, Ethics,and Information Revolution in the AdministrativeProcess

7. The Meaning of Work for Public-Sector Versus Private-SectorEmployees 119Raphael Snir and Itzhak Harpaz

8. New Ethical Challenges Under the New Reform Movements inthe Public Administration Sector 139Rivka Amado

9. Public AdministrationThe New Generation: Management inHigh-Information-Level Societies 151Lynton K. Caldwell

10. The Digitized Health Service: A Theoretical Framework forPublic Administration 177Urs E. Gattiker and Inger Marie Giversen

11. Can Competition Transform Public Organizations? EuropeanAttempts to Revitalize Hospitals Through Market Mechanisms 211Michael I. Harrison

Part III Organizational and Managerial Analysis:A Business Management Approach for the PublicSector

12. Some Organizational Learning About Change: Effective andTimely Change Are Not Oxymoronic in the Public Sector 243Robert T. Golembiewski and Carl Miller

13. The Organization of Chaos: The Structure of DisasterManagement 259Alan Kirschenbaum

14. Consumer Communications Management and PublicAdministration: A View from the Business Bridge 287Moshe Davidow

15. Toward Comprehensive Reform of Israels EducationSystem 305Arye Globerson and Rami Ben-Yshai

Contents xiii

Part IV Synthesis and Summary: Current Trends and the WayForward

16. Public Management and Governance: Emerging Trends andPotential Future Directions 345Tony Bovaird

Index 377

Contributors

Rivka Amado Department of Political Science, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

Rami Ben-Yshai Department of Labor Studies, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv,Israel

Tony Bovaird Bristol Business School, University of the West of England,Bristol, United Kingdom

Gerald E. Caiden School of Policy, Planning, and Development, Universityof Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Naomi J. Caiden Department of Political Science, California State University,Los Angeles, California

Lynton K. Caldwell School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana Uni-versity, Bloomington, Indiana

Moshe Davidow Graduate School of Business, University of Haifa, Haifa,Israel

Urs E. Gattiker Department of Production, School of Engineering, AalborgUniversity, Aalborg, Denmark

Etai Gilboa Department of Political Science, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

Inger Marie Giversen National Board of Health, Copenhagen, Denmark

Arye Globerson Department of Labor Studies, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv,Israel

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xvi Contributors

Robert T. Golembiewski Department of Political Science, School of Publicand International Affairs, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Itzhak Harpaz Center for the Study of Organizations and Human ResourceManagement, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

Michael I. Harrison Graduate Program in Organizations, Department of Soci-ology and Anthropology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

Alan Kirschenbaum Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management,Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

Carl Miller U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C.

B. Guy Peters Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pitts-burgh, Pennsylvania

Robert Schwartz Department of Political Science, University of Haifa, Haifa,Israel

Ira Sharkansky Department of Political Science, The Hebrew University ofJerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

Raphael Snir Center for the Study of Organizations and Human ResourceManagement, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

Eran Vigoda Department of Political Science, University of Haifa, Haifa,Israel

Introduction

THE NEED FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY CRITICAL ANALYSISOF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Public administration is a discipline in transition. In fact, it has always been incontinuous movement, but not always in the same direction. Contrary to theheavy, formal, and inflexible image of bureaucracies, public sector bodies inAmerica, Europe, and elsewhere have been in a rapidly intensifying transitionsince the early 1990s. During the last century, public administration underwentsignificant changes resulting from crises, as well as breakthroughs in an ultrady-namic environment. Some 30 years ago, Waldo (1968) noted that these ongoingtransformations reflected an identity crisis of a science in formation. They alsosignaled a struggle for the recognition and legitimacy of public administrationas an art, a body of knowledge, and a profession (Lynn, 1996). It seems thattoday, at the beginning of the 21st century, the formation of public administrationis still unfinished business. It is a subject for debate among academics and prac-titioners across the world who seek higher and more extensive scientific recogni-tion, more accurate self-definition, and better applicability of the field to rapidchanges in modern life. This process presents new challenges for public adminis-tration. Perhaps the most important is to integrate more widely existing knowl-edge of the social sciences with efficient public action and with quality govern-mental operation. In the coming years public administration will be evaluated byhigher standards of theory cohesiveness and by more comprehensive performanceindicators rooted in a variety of scientific fields. The exploration of new interdis-ciplinary horizons for public administration is thus essential and inevitable forthe successful passage of the field into the third millennium.

In recent decades the struggle over the nature and uniqueness of public

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xviii Introduction

administration has continued, some say even intensified. From the very earlydays of the discipline to the present, its boundaries have been in a state of ongoingdebate. To talk of the Public, of Administration, and of the integration ofthe two constructs into a useful terrain for study involves promises as well asdifficulties. But consensus does exist on at least one issue: the public needs abetter bureaucracy (more flexible, working efficiently and effectively, movingquickly toward objectives, and at the same time responding to the needs of thepeople without delays and with maximum social sensitivity, responsibility, andmorality). The public also expects good and skillful administrators, familiar withthe mysteries of quality services and effective management. Only they can pro-duce better public goods and deliver them to all sectors of society with mini-mum time and cost. These goals are undoubtedly ambitious, but only they havethe potential of guarding the structure of democratic societies. This is a revisedversion of the ideal type of public administration system applicable to moderntimes.

However, reality seems far more complex. In fact, there is growing con-cern among scholars that today these goals are way beyond reach. Modern statesacross the world face serious problems of addressing the publics needs. Achiev-ing one target is usually accompanied by painful compromises on others, andlimited resources are frequently cited as the main reason for failure in the provi-sion of services. Moreover, fundamental changes occur in peoples lifestyles aswell as in their beliefs and ideology. They are intensified by high technology,communication systems, new distribution of capital, and the rise of new civicvalues that never existed before. All these lead citizens to perceive governmentsand public administration systems differently. The role of the state and its rela-tionship to bureaucracy and to citizens are undergoing substantial transforma-tion, not only in the minds of the people but also in scientific thinking. In arapidly changing environment, public administration has a major function andnew aims that must be clearly recognized. It remains the best tool democracycan use to create fruitful reciprocal relationships between the state and citizens,but on a higher and better level. To uncover the major tasks and challenges fac-ing the new generation of public administration we require a cross-disciplinarystrategy and improved integration of all available knowledge in the social sci-ences aimed at redefining the boundaries of public administration systems in itsnew era.

THE FRAMEWORK OF THE BOOK

The general approach of the book is to provide insight into the core disciplinesfrom which public administration, both as a science and as a profession, draws itssubstance. The chapters fall into three main domains, each focusing on a separate

Introduction xix

disciplinary perspective: policy and politics, society and culture, and organiza-tional management.

The first chapter describes the background and reviews the heritage of pub-lic administration. Its goal is to portray the chronological as well as the disciplin-ary evolution of public systems over the years. This chapter elaborates on basicassumptions relevant to the three core disciplinary origins of public administra-tion. It concludes by noting recent transformations in public administration the-ory, such as the reinvention of government and the (new) public managementrevolution.

The first part of the book is dedicated to the very central and conservativeview of the field, highlighting political perspectives, policy, and administrativeanalysis. Through questions on policy planning, policy making, and policy imple-mentation, Ira Sharkansky discusses the eternal tension between social-orientedpolicy and business-oriented policy. According to Sharkansky, economic versussocial priorities is a common problem that appears in most, if not all, Westerndemocracies. He argues that the political sphere is dominant in making varioustradeoffs possible and effective but further suggests that the essence of politicalwisdom is to know when to choose a simplifying deviceand which to useand when to seek out the roots of a problem and to embark on a thoroughgoingand creative solution. Taking a politicspolicy viewpoint, this essay critiquesone of the most important issues in contemporary public administration: the de-bate over increasing pressures for businesslike public policy on the one hand andthe human aspects of solidarism in modern society on the other. It is argued thatpressures are exerted to produce numerous benefits but limited resources and/orother conflicts are built into the items on the public agenda. The general answeroffered by Sharkansky to this dilemma is timing, which highly influences thechances to yield an effective and successful public policy.

Following this, Gerald E. Caiden and Naomi J. Caiden discuss the natureof democratic governance in several Western states. Their essay elaborates onpatterns of modernizing the administrative state in Australia, North America, andthe United Kingdom. These democracies believe that they are well on the wayto reconciling various dilemmas in governance and that they have discoveredsuitable instruments, which they have adopted with some success. However, theystill recognize that they fall short of what they would like to attain in the practiceof democratic governance. Dealing with concepts such as a Third Way for gover-nance, administrative responsibility, and representative public policy making, aswell as ideas of putting citizens, not public officials, first and performance mea-surement in public agencies, this essay provides a useful comparative view ofthe current state of administrative reforms in modern societies.

Next is Robert Schwartzs critique on the issue of accountability in anevolving public administration. His chapter discusses accountability in public

xx Introduction

management systems, which he sees as an elusive phenomenon that calls forre-exploration by public administration terminology. Schwartz argues that thegrowing size and complexity of government strain the links of the traditionalchain of accountability as power over public resources has been largely trans-ferred to bureaucrats. The crisis of accountability draws its substance from publicdissatisfaction with government, which has led to a series of reform efforts cur-rently known as new public management (NPM). The author lucidly develops atheory of accountability types, relationships, and roles in old/traditional publicadministration. It is then compared with accountability schemes developed inNPM. By calling upon issues of performance measurement, market concerns,political accountability, separation of operative agencies from policymaking cen-ters, and progress-oriented accountability, this chapter provides an extensive criti-cal analysis of the current state of accountability in modern public administrationsystems. It employs international literature on school reforms (mostly from theUnited States, England, Wales, and Australia) and presents evidence from IsraeliNPM experience of governmentthird sector collaboration. Three conclusionsare suggested: (1) there are significant political and organizational obstaclesto the application of a purist brand of NPM results-oriented accountability;(2) the purist NPM result-oriented accountability is not feasible in all situations;and (3) the NPM general accountability model is replaceable by an alternativecontingency model and multitypes of accountability solutions.

The chapter by B. Guy Peters covers state traditions and public administra-tion, linking cultural and historical patterns among the industrialized democracieswith their administrative institutions. Peters suggests two extreme models forgoverning: the traditional hierarchy model and the market alternative, which pro-vides some important benefits in the provision of public services but also mayhave some weighty disadvantages. Peters argues that the process of moving awayfrom the traditional conception of governing and toward alternative modes ofgovernance is far from complete. What has been occurring is a process of reformof the public sector that introduces some features of the governance model whileat the same time retaining many aspects of traditional governing. Thus, it is ar-gued that the central issue of contemporary administrative reform may be the needto find mechanisms for matching the emerging political goals with the importanteconomic and managerialist programs. The three major themes in this regard arebetter coordination, high level of accountability, and improved performance. Still,in his conclusion Peters suggests that reform is unlikely to stop with contempo-rary efforts at accountability, coordination, and performance management.Rather, the process of change is likely to continue, albeit in yet again differentdirections. In line with this we might expect movement toward greater emphasison broader processes of governance rather than government administration perse. Therefore, we should expect the public sector to become increasingly open

Introduction xxi

to interactions with other social players (such as the private and third sectors)and increasing interdependence among nongovernmental actors for its success.

This point is exactly the starting assumption of the next chapter, by EranVigoda and Etai Gilboa, which deals with the quest for a strategic approach tocollaboration in the public sector. The authors explore the vital need for alliancesamong various social players to achieve the ambitious public goals in modernsociety. Vigoda and Gilboa try to summarize a knowledge bank that has accumu-lated over recent decades on the effectiveness and positive potential of sharingforces, the better to serve citizens in ultradynamic environments. The strategicapproach is based on six main stages for collaboration: (1) deciding on a fittingissue for collaboration, (2) characterizing the issue by what and where inquir-ies, (3) finding out who is involved, (4) finding out how to implement,(5) launching implementation, and (6) evaluating the process. The strategic pro-gram is then illuminated with local governance ventures and examples. It is sug-gested that the local governance arena provides a good habitat for the emergenceand development of collaborative ventures among public administration, the pri-vate sector, the third sector, and citizens as groups or individuals. The chapterconcludes with a synthesis of the current knowledge in the field and with thepotential benefits for all parties involved if and when collaboration projects inten-sify and expand.

The second part of the book attempts a social and cultural analysis of publicadministration. Tradition, values, and information revolution in the administrativeprocess constitute the core terminology of this section, which seeks to explainhow public administration heavily depends on cultural factors in determiningcollective outputs and outcomes. Raphael Snir and Itzhak Harpaz provide aunique comparative analysis of work values and culture in the public and privatesectors. Building on an empirical examination of two samples of the Israeli workforce (1981, n 973; and 1993, n 942), the authors search for differencesbetween private and public personnel as related to their perceptions of the mean-ing of work. The major difference between public- and private-sector employeesthat emerged from the analyses was that while public-sector employees weremore concerned with occupational security and convenient work hours, private-sector employees were more materialistic. In addition, employees from both sec-tors attributed rather little importance to the notion that working is a useful wayfor them to serve society, but the public-sector employees attributed more impor-tance to it. No differences were found between public-sector and private-sectoremployees concerning work centrality, obligation norm, expressive orientation,and interpersonal relations. The similarities or differences between private- andpublic-sector employees remained stable across labor force sampling time. Snirand Harpaz adopt a cultural approach to the understanding of work in the publicsector. One important implication of this study is that businesslike methods of

xxii Introduction

human resource management are applicable in public domains but only to acertain level. Beyond this level, inherent cross-sectorial variables of work cul-ture may prove relevant and limit the movement noted in recent years toward abusinesslike orientation in the public sector.

Another cultural analysis by Rivka Amado deals with current issues ofethics and morality in modern public administration and with new ethical chal-lenges for public personnel in future generations. The issue of ethics in the publicadministration arena has captured growing scholarly attention in recent decades,and it receives unique coverage in this chapter. However, Amado argues thatethical issues, emerging from the shift to a more participatory style of administra-tion, enjoyed little if any attention in the literature. She further asserts that thenew public servant is caught between institutional pressures and interests to keepcosts down and consumers demands for more and better services. Therefore,the public administrator has to engage in joint decision making with citizen-consumers who do not possess the same skills, knowledge, or perspectives aspublic servants. Obviously, citizens are likely to demonstrate poor understandingof the full range of choices and technologies to solve social problems. Amadouses the intriguing concept of ethical imbalance to depict the tension betweencitizen-consumers and public servants resulting from the new reform movementin public administration. Her chapter offers a fresh view of ethical questions,taking an approach comparing the old nature of public administration with thenewer styles of managing this sector. Amado concludes that new trends in publicadministration have not yet resolved this ethical imbalance. Thus, this chapterexplores a significant weakness of the value of responsiveness that poses a majorchallenge for NPM as well as other managerial reforms in the public sector,which will demand more attention in the years to come.

Lynton K. Caldwell addresses problems of public administration in a highlyinformed society, dealing with ethics, law, human rights, and scientific informa-tion. Caldwell argues that with the onset of the 21st century, the expansion ofelectronics and technology has profoundly altered the processes of communica-tion and the treatment of information. The impact of this increasing electroniccapability has been experienced notably in the more developed societies withhigher levels of public information and organized participation in public affairs.While all sectors of the economy, now global, have been affected, the scopeoffered by these expanding capabilities carries exceptional implications for gov-ernment and its administration. New opportunities and hazards now challengepublic administration. Effects have been multiplied by the expanding role of gov-ernment, induced by rapid advances in science and technology, and growth ofpopulation and the economy. As the consequences of these unprecedented devel-opments are realized, doubt has arisen among many as to our ability to responsi-bly manage the new information and communication capabilities. So are a re-thinking and a restructuring of our institutions for policy analysis, development,

Introduction xxiii

and decision making needed, the better to assure our future welfare and sus-tainability? This question confronts the new generation in public administrationand is extensively discussed in this chapter. Caldwell provides lucid analyses ofvarious examples and illustrations drawn mostly from the United States. Refer-ence is also made to European governments in which administrative managementhas received particular attention.

Urs E. Gattiker and Inger Marie Giversen present a theory of informationtechnology (IT) and try to explain its current as well as future impact on healthcare agencies of public administration. This important chapter sets forth a per-spective of cultural change, but at the same time it uses strictly managerial/orga-nizational and political ideas. Gattiker and Giversen come from quite distinctiveacademic disciplines to enlighten an interdisciplinary public managerial arenathat is much understudied. They argue that IT has become part of everyoneslife, be it through telecommunication, Internet, or databases that contain sensitiveinformation about ourselves. In their view, IT is most important and critical wherehealth or tax records are concerned. The authors suggest that in these times ofrapid change, public administration is challenged to provide legislators and publicadministration professionals with new insights, models, and possible solutionsneeded to best take advantage of information technology and the Internet. Whilethe media may be excited about the potential of IT in health care, more effectiveIT use for information exchange among health care professionals requires thedevelopment of more mundane procedures affecting administration, medical ser-vices, and communication channels alike. The authors indeed critically discussthese issues from a public health service perspective, using Denmark for illustra-tion. They also provide insights for researchers and decision makers of the newtype of public agencies.

Focusing on one of the central public services in modern societies, MichaelI. Harrison examines exposure to competition in health systems and asks, Can ittransform public organizations? To answer this question he draws on Europeanattempts, mainly in England and Sweden, to revitalize hospitals through marketmechanisms. The empirical analysis draws on over 90 in-depth, semistructuredinterviews that Harrison conducted in Sweden during early 1994 and late 1995and in England in mid-1996. These interviews furnished the basis for this interest-ing microanalysis across two European cultures. The studys main findings arethat political, organizational, occupational, and technical forces ultimately com-bined to thwart the attempts of governmental policy makers to generate vigorouscompetition among public providers of hospital care. However, limited competi-tion did emerge. Competition helped stimulate service production and enhancedproviders responsiveness to client concerns. Yet the study found that competitiondid not contribute directly to improvement of the clinical quality of hospital ser-vices and probably contributed to declines in the scope and quality of care inBritains National Health Service.

xxiv Introduction

The third part of the book is concerned with organizational and managerialanalysis: how to manage the public sector better is central to our discussion, andthe issue receives much attention from various aspects. It has structural, social,and, mainly, human facets, which are widely discussed through the chapters.Robert T. Golembiewski and Carl Miller provide an organizational developmentperspective for public systems based on an analysis of managerial processes inAmerican public administration as part of an organizational intervention in theU.S. Department of Labor. The chapter relies on the vast experience of the authorsand, using Golembiewskis and Millers own words, sets out guidelines that pro-vide a useful sketch of what works in the practice of change in the publicsector. Using a rich pictorial language, this chapter is quite optimistic about thepossibility of change in the public sector, particularly regarding technology-for-change with valuesusually called Organization Development (OD) or Qualityof Working Life (QWL). The cross-national perspective suggests that thousandsof applications in about 60 nation-states have been isolated and they generallyare rated as successes by multiple raters. Golembiewski and Miller then goto three sources of evidence supporting optimism for change in the public sector.These are OD success rates, QWL success rates, and success of planned change.Based on these, the authors provide 10 major guidelines for required organiza-tional and managerial change in public administration. They conclude that theirview represents a mixed approach: it implies criticism of public administrationthinking and approaches and provides a range of alternativesand sees a majorfuture role for an administrative state, if suitably reformed.

Alan Kirschenbaum examines the fascinating issue of population behaviorduring mass disasters and their public implications. This is an exciting discussionof possible future problems with which public administration will have to dealmore extensively and more thoroughly. Kirschenbaum argues that a radicalchange in the evolutionary process of dealing with disasters has occurred, replac-ing organic community adaptation with public administration disaster-manage-ment systems. In consequence, technology has supplanted grass-roots communitypolicy, data collection has replaced historical knowledge, and specialized emer-gency managers have displaced community leaders. Therefore, it is argued thatthese outcomes, based solely on the rationality of action within highly bureau-cratic organizations, are detrimental to preventing or mitigating disasters. Public-sector administrations are plagued by internal built-in organizational conflicts aswell as self-effacing goals that not only hamper effective disaster managementbut also exacerbate the conflicts. A comparison of the consensus-based communitywith conflict-based bureaucratic models of disaster management highlights thesedifferences. Historical global disaster data provide an insight into how public-sector disaster-management units have made little contribution to mitigating di-sasters. Kirschenbaum presents empirical findings that raise serious doubts as to

Introduction xxv

the effectiveness of public administrations ability in disaster management, andstrongly urges a reintroduction of the community model.

Moshe Davidow builds on the idea of Consumer Communication Manage-ment (CCM) and relates it to the process of marketing in the public sector. Thisbusiness-oriented chapter makes an intriguing point by applying the idea of mar-keting, which has purely business connotations, to the public sector. First, Da-vidow explains why and how the concept of marketing can and should be relatedto public administration. His examples illuminate how marketing is used by localand state authorities to broaden the tax base, increase income, acquire new cus-tomers and maintain existing ones, and improve responsiveness to citizens ascustomers. Next the chapter develops the idea of CCM to argue that it may pro-vide a solution for some current ills of the public sector. CCM is a collectiveterm used to denote all activities that an organization performs reactively andproactively to leverage consumer communications into customer satisfaction. Da-vidow develops this idea and portrays its mechanisms throughout the text, usinga detailed theoretical model that has many advantages but is not barrier-free. Allin all, this chapter presents a viable framework that synthesizes current marketingresearch and successfully applies it to the area of public administration. Undoubt-edly, this is an important interdisciplinary contribution that is unique in its attemptto borrow some natural business terminologies for the public arena.

Finally, Arye Globerson and Rami Ben-Yshai present a comprehensive ap-proach to managerial reform in education systems, based on the Israeli case. Theyargue that in many contemporary societies (and especially in Israel), teaching,as an occupation, is characterized by minimal professionalization, limited andshort career paths, poor salary, few mandatory hours in the classroom, low socialstatus, and high levels of burnout. Although these managerial disorders typifythe public-service sector, there is little doubt that the severity of its consequencesfor teaching is unique, given the scope of demands and indispensability of educa-tion in the modern era. Thus, Globerson and Ben-Yshai suggest a four-step reformto counter teacher absenteeism, produce an ethical code for the profession, en-courage reciprocity among various partners who are related to the educationalsystem, and develop career paths and compensation by task, performance, andmerit. In sum, this chapter proposes a comprehensive model of revitalizing pub-lic-education systems and provides a unique understanding of how to effectivelytransform public agencies and make them highly compatible in a managerial-focused environment.

The book ends with a synthesis and summary of the various issues andconceptions as set out by all chapter authors. This summary, by Tony Bovaird,identifies different views as well as common lines of thinking in the realm ofpublic administration that are mutually enriched by a variety of social disciplines.Current interdisciplinary initiatives and projects are suggested as useful and effec-

xxvi Introduction

tive for the future evolution of the field. They are expected to pave the way tomeaningful challenges of the public sector in implementing public policy betterthan ever before. All in all, we propose critical understanding of governance andpublic services that may shape a new generation of public administration in the21st century.

TARGET READERS

The goal of this book is to uncover some of the diversity and complexity of thefield in a rapidly changing environment, which encompasses a dynamic humanarena. The book may well serve scholars from proximate social disciplines whoresearch parallel and cross-sectional public topics but only occasionally get toknow one anothers work. This reality has yielded many successful studies buthas generally failed to build a cohesive science. The book may well serve studentsof different fields in the social sciences. It provides useful information relevantfor public administration students or those of political science, sociology, man-agement and business, human resource and industrial relations studies, publicaffairs, and communication. Several chapters may also be apt for psychologystudents focusing on public-personnel attitudes and behaviors and on the humanside of the workplace. All these scholars have a specific interest in the evolutionof public organizations and their increasing role in society.

The book also serves practitioners and public service managers, the profes-sionals who must run governmental systems more effectively and efficiently. Atthe same time they have to devote adequate attention and consideration to thesocial interests of individuals and groups. The publics needs and demands formore economical policy implementation must be balanced against considerationsof human equity and social justice. Accordingly, the book takes on the complexassignment of bridging economic and social interests in the study of public sys-tems. This is a challenging objective for the new generation of practitioners ofpublic administration and for all who care about its nature in the future.

REFERENCES

Lynn, L. E. (1996). Public Management as Art, Science, and Profession. Chatham, NJ:Chatham House.

Waldo, D. (1968). Scope of the theory of public administration. Annals of the AmericanAcademy of Political and Social Sciences, 8, 126.

1The Legacy of Public AdministrationBackground and Review

Eran VigodaUniversity of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

THE EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: SCIENCEAND PROFESSION IN MOTION

An ordinary citizen of an ordinary modern democracy fortunate enough to under-take a journey backwards in time is likely to find meaningful similarities betweenpublic administration of our era and administrative systems of old cultures. Thefoundations of modern public administration can be discerned thousands of yearsago, across cultures and in various nations around the globe. The Bible mentionsa variety of hierarchical and managerial structures that served as prototypes forthe governance of growing populations. Ancient methods of public labor distribu-tion were expanded by the Greeks and the Romans to control vast conqueredlands and many peoples. The Persian and Ottoman empires in the Middle East,like imperial China in the Far East, paved the way for public administration inthe modern age, wherein European Christians, and later Christians of the NewWorld, were in the ascendant. All these, as well as other cultures, used a remark-ably similar set of concepts, ideas, and methods for governing and administratingpublic goods, resources, and interests. They all employed professionals and ex-perts from a variety of social fields. They all used authority and power as the

1

2 Vigoda

cheapest control system for individuals, governmental institutions, and processes.All of them faced administrative problems close in type and in nature to problemsof our own times: how to achieve better efficiency, effectiveness, and economyin government, how to satisfy the needs of the people, and how to sustain stablepolitical hegemony despite the divergent demands and needs of sectorial groups.Not surprisingly, all the above cultures and nations also used similar managerialtools and methods aimed at solving problems of this kind. They all used, fairlyeffectively, division of labor, professionalism, centralization and decentralizationmechanisms, accumulation of knowledge, coordination of jobs, complex staffingprocesses of employees, long-range planning, controlling for performance, andso on. Intuitively, one feels that nothing has really changed in the managerialand administrative process of public organizations for centuries, possibly millen-nia, but this feeling is of course exaggerated. Some major changes have takenplace in recent centuries to create both a totally different environment and newrules to which rulers and citizens must adhere and by which they must adjusttheir operation. In fact, a new kind of governing game has taken shape in whichpublic administration plays a central role.

Despite basic similarities, public administration of our times is an organismentirely different from public services in the past. It is larger than ever before,and is still expanding. It is more complex than in the past, and is becomingincreasingly so by the day. It has many more responsibilities to citizens, and itstill has to cope with increasing demands of the people. It is acquiring moreeligibilities, but more than ever before it must restrain its operation and adhereto standards of equity, justice, social fairness, and especially accountability.Moreover, modern public administration is considered a social science, a classi-fication that carries high esteem but also firm obligations and rigid constraints.For many individuals who decide to become public servants it is also a professionand an occupation to which they dedicate their lives and careers. Most important,however, public administration is one of the highly powerful institutions in mod-ern democracies. It wields considerable strength and influence in policy framing,policy making, and policy implementation, hence it is subject to growing pres-sures of political players, social actors, and managerial professionals.

An overview of the relatively short history of modern public administrationreveals that the field is far more eclectic than might be thought. The science ofpublic administration was born toward the end of the nineteenth century whenthe business of the state started to attract socialacademic attention. The revolu-tion that turned public administration into an independent science and professionis traditionally related with the influential work and vision of Woodrow Wilson(1887) and Frank J. Goodnow (1900). These scholars were among the first whoadvocated the autonomy of the field as a unique area of science that drew sub-stance from several sources. In the first years, law, political theory of the state,and several hard sciences such as engineering and industrial relations were

The Legacy of Public Administration 3

the most fundamental and influential mother disciplines. Over time these fieldsstrongly influenced the formation and transition of public administration, but theextent and direction of the influence were not linear or consistent.

Kettl and Milward (1996:7) argued that traditional public administrationas advocated by the progenitors of the discipline consisted in the power of law.Representatives of the people make the law and delegate responsibility to profes-sional bureaucrats to execute it properly. Highly qualified bureaucrats, supportedby the best tools and resources, are then expected to discharge the law to thehighest professional standards, which in return produce good and accountablemanagerial results that best serve the people. According to Rosenbloom (1998),the legal approach views public administration as applying and enforcing thelaw in concrete circumstances and is infused with legal and adjudicatory con-cerns (p. 33). This approach is derived from three major interrelated sources:(1) administrative law, which is the body of law and regulations that controlgeneric administrative processes, (2) the judicialization of public administration,which is the tendency for administrative processes to resemble courtroom proce-dures, and (3) constitutional law, which redefines a variety of citizens rights andliberties. Several legal definitions argue that public administration is law in actionand mainly a regulative system, which is government telling citizens and busi-nesses what they may and may not do (Shafritz and Russell, 1997:14). Overthe years, however, it has become obvious that law in itself does not maintainsatisfactory conditions for quality public-sector performance to emerge. Constitu-tional systems furnish platforms for healthy performance of public administra-tion, but do not account for its effectiveness or efficiency. Stated differently,good laws are necessary but insufficient conditions for creating a well-performingpublic service.

One such important contribution came from the classic hard sciences ofengineering and industrial relations. In its very early stages public administrationwas heavily influenced by dramatic social forces and long-range developmentsin the western world. The ongoing industrial revolution in the early 1900s, whichwas accompanied by political reforms, higher democratization, and more concernfor the peoples welfare, needed highly qualified navigators. These were engi-neers, industrial entrepreneurs, and technical professionals who guided both mar-kets and governments along the elusive ways to economic and social prosperity.Various fields of engineering, the subsequent evoking area of industrial studies,and other linked disciplines, such as statistical methods, became popular andcrucial for the development of management science in general and were alsogradually found useful for public arenas. The link between general managementand public administration has its roots in understanding complex organizationsand bureaucracies, which have many shared features.

With time, dramatic changes occurred in the nature, orientation, and appli-cation of general organizational theory to public administration of modern socie-

4 Vigoda

ties. A major transition resulted from the exploration of the Hawthorn studies inthe 1920s and 1930s, conducted by a well-known industrial psychologist fromHarvard Business School, Elton Mayo. A behavioral apparatus was used to drivea second revolution, beyond the revolution that originally produced the theory,which swept the young science into its first stages of maturity. Today, trends anddevelopments in the public sector cannot be fully understood without adequateattention to behavioral, social, and cultural issues, which are also an essentialpart of the present volume. These aspects conjoin with questions of policy makingand policy evaluation, as well as with managerial, economic, and organizationalcontents, to better illuminate public systems. The human and social side of publicorganizations became central and critical to all seekers of greater knowledge andcomprehension of the states operation. People and groups were placed at theheart of the discussion on organizational development and managerial methods.The human side of organizations was made an organic part of the art of adminis-tration. It is still an indispensable facet of the craft of bureaucracy. All who areinterested in the healthy future and sound progress of public organizations andservices both as a science and as a profession have to effectively incorporatehumanistic views into their basic managerial ideology.

Major transitions still lay ahead, however. International conflicts during the1930s and the 1940s forced immense changes in national ideology and demo-cratic perspectives in many Western societies, consequently public administrationand public policy had to be transformed as well. During the Second World Wartheoretical ideas were massively supported by advanced technology and higherstandards of industrialization. These were pioneered by professional managersand accompanied by new managerial theories. Ironically, the two world warsserved as facilitators of managerial change as well as accelerators and agents offuture developments and reforms in the public sector. The political leaders andsocial movements of the victorious democracies were convinced that the time hadcome for extensive reforms in the management of Western states. The assumedcorrelation of social and economic conditions with political stability and orderpropelled some of the more massive economic programs in which the state tookan active part. The rehabilitation of war-ravaged Europe involved governmentalefforts and international aid, most of it from the United States. Major attentionwas dedicated to the creation of better services for the people, long-range plan-ning, and high-performance public institutions capable of delivering quality pub-lic goods to growing numbers of citizens. To build better societies was the target.A larger and more productive public sector was the tool.

In many respects the utopian vision of a better society generated by thepostwar politicians and administrators in the 1940s and 1950s gradually crumbledand fell during the 1960s and 1970s. A large number of governments in theWestern world could not deliver to the people many of the social promises theyhad made. The challenge of creating a new society free of crime and poverty,

The Legacy of Public Administration 5

highly educated and morally superior, healthier and safer than ever before, re-mained an unreachable goal, so during the 1970s and 1980s, citizens trust andconfidence in governments and in public administration as a professional agentof governments suffered a significant decline. The public no longer believed thatgovernments and public services could bring relief to those who needed help,and that no public planning was good enough to compete with natural social andmarket forces. The promises of modern administration, running an effective pub-lic policy, seemed like a broken dream. Political changes took place in most ofthe Western states, most of them stemming from deep frustration in the publicand disapproval of government policies. By the end of the twentieth century thecrises in public organizations and mistrust of administrators were viewed bothas a policy and managerial failure (Rainey, 1990). In addition, this practical un-certainty and disappointment with governments and their public administrationauthorities naturally diffused into the scientific community. Theoretical ideas forpolicy reforms in various social fields, which once seemed a key for curing mal-aise in democracies, proved unsuccessful. Within the last decade the search fornew ideas and solutions for such problems has reached its peak, and premisesoriginally rooted in business management have been increasingly adapted andapplied to the public sector. Among these ventures are re-engineering bureaucra-cies (Hammer and Champy, 1994), applying benchmarking strategy to publicservices (Camp, 1998), reinventing government (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992),and the most influential movement, of New Public Management (NPM) (Lynn,1998; Stewart and Ranson, 1994). These receive growing attention, accompaniedby large measures of skepticism and criticism.

TRANSFORMATIONS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONAS AN ACADEMIC FIELD

Throughout those years public administration as an academic field was also intransition. Today many examples exist in universities of independent public ad-ministration units; some operate as schools and some as freestanding faculties.In at least an equal number of universities, however, public administration pro-grams on all levels are only part of larger units such as political science depart-ments, business and management schools, or even public affairs schools. Thisdisciplinary schizophrenia certainly yields a science that is more complex andheterogeneous, but also more challenging and full of promise.

The scientific background of public administration in the late 1990s andearly 2000s is still not stable and has not overcome its childhood ailments. Onthe contrary, identity conflicts have only intensified with the years. During thelast three decades Waldos diagnosis of the late 1960s on public administrationas a science in formation struggling with a pernicious identity crisis has notchanged much. The evolution of alternative subdisciplines inside and around the

6 Vigoda

field (e.g., policy studies, public personnel management, information manage-ment) carried promises but also risks for its position and role as a central fieldof social study. As recently noted by Peters (1996), modern public administrationgreatly reflects a lack of self-confidence both as a science and as a profession.This lack is expressed in many ways, the most significant being an incapacity toguide governments through a safe circuit of public policy change. Much of theaccumulated wisdom in the science of public administration has been obtainedthrough social experiments, the commission of policy errors, and sometimes evenlearning from them about better ways to serve the people. Mistakes cost money,howevermuch money, money from all of us, the taxpayers. Like good custom-ers in a neighborhood supermarket, citizens should be and have become awareof the services they deserve, of the high prices they are asked to pay, and ofgovernmental actions that should be taken to produce useful changes. Demandsfor better operation are generally aimed at governments, but they should beand arealso targeted at science and academia. Science has the potential ofexploring new knowledge, generating better explanations for relevant administra-tive problems, applying sophisticated and useful professional methods, and mostimportant, directing all available resources to produce successful and practicalrecommendations for professionals. Its prime goal is to design a comprehensivetheoretical view of public systems that is clear, highly efficient, effective, thrifty,and socially oriented at the same time. This cannot be achieved without extensiveunderstanding of the diversity, complexity, and interdisciplinarity of the scienceof public administration.

In many ways the persistent public mistrust of governmental services andinstitutions, together with the marked instability of public administration as ascience, inspired us in the present venture. The fragile status of the theory ofpublic administration is the point of departure for a different kind of discussion,which is broader and multiperceptional. Our core argument is that one can findmany ways to depict the administrative system, its functionality, and its relation-ship with the public, but the identity crisis of public administration cannot besolved until many approaches are combined and coalesce to explain the verybasic constructs that modern societies encounter at the start of the new century.A major assumption of this volume is that only mutual efforts and quality combi-nation of critical knowledge from a variety of social disciplines and methods canyield a real opportunity for overcoming public administrations postchildhoodproblems. Such a crisis of identity, which has existed for more than a centurynow, carries risks, but also promises, which must be properly isolated, assessed,analyzed, and only then fulfilled. The translation of science into operative actsby government must rely on such sufficient wisdom, which can be accumulatedfrom various social branches. The contribution of this volume is thus its effortto bring these views together and to produce a multifaceted analysis of modernpublic administration.

The Legacy of Public Administration 7

DISCIPLINARY ORIGINS

As portrayed earlier, the desired comprehensive understanding of public adminis-tration should rely on the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of its sister disci-plines (and not necessarily the conventional mother disciplines) in the social sci-ences. Unfortunately, so far most writing on public systems has adopted aunidimensional viewpoint. Public administration was frequently understoodthrough the eyes of policy analysts or political scientists. Alternatively it wasconsidered a specific field of management science or a domain of organizationalstudies. While the roots of the administrative process are definitely (and withmuch justification) identified with political science, policy studies, and manage-rial constructs of public institutions, it would be most imprecise to point solelyto these arenas in portraying the boundaries and nature of public administration.An integrative approach has much merit and potential in this case, and it mustbe well developed to conform to the complex reality of serving the public.

Administrative science is a discipline in transition that involves politics,but not exclusively. It deals with policy, but reaches much farther and deeperthan policy questions. It incorporates sociological and cultural aspects that changerapidly in a mass communicative global world, but it goes beyond these issues.It deals with people as workers, citizens, clients, and consumers, and as leadersand managers, as well as with a variety of other human constructs that mergeinto a unique branch of knowledge. A multidisciplinary approach is evidentlyrequired to explain better what every scholar already knows from his or her per-sonal perspective: that the truth about public administration has many faces andno monopoly exists any longer over the disciplines status and orientations.

We identify three main disciplines that serve today as core sources ofknowledge in the study of public administration. These are political science andpolicy analysis, sociology and cultural studies, and organization managementand the business sciences, which also comprise the organizational behavior (OB)and human resource (HR) subdivisions. Beyond the legal approach noted byRosenbloom (1998), which still has many advantages for the study of present-day public administration, the former disciplines furnished the essence of thefield as a new science in its early days. They highly influenced its formationin subsequent years, too. Political science and policy analysis provided publicadministration with a core scientific terminology, a macro-conceptual framework,a research focus, and a politics-oriented agenda to be developed in later years.In most modern nations public administration is considered mainly a blend ofpolitical and organizational knowledge that characterizes large bureaucracies. So-ciology contributed the cultural aspect, which is relevant for cross-organizationaland cross-national studies (Hofstede, 1980). It also made possible the develop-ment of comparative studies and a better understanding of group dynamics andinformal structures such as norms or values inside bureaucracies (Schein, 1985).

8 Vigoda

The business approach guided public administration through managerial consid-erations and individual behaviors in organizations. Traditional management sci-ence of the late 1800s and the concentration on the human side of organizationsduring the early 1900s exerted increasing influence on administrative thinking.A significant increase and extension of managerial influences on public adminis-tration thinking as a science and profession occurred during the mid-1980s withthe evolution of NPM trends, which revitalized managerial theory in the publicsector. Together these three disciplines and their appropriate internal integrationare essential for a better understanding of contemporary modern public services.

THE THREE Ps: POLITICS, POLICY, AND PUBLICADMINISTRATION

The political approach to public administration was depicted by Rosenbloom(1998) as stressing the values of representativeness, political responsiveness, andaccountability to the citizenry through elected officials. These values are consid-ered necessary requirements of democracy, and they must be incorporated into allaspects of government and administration. Wallace (1978) argued that ultimatelypublic administration is a problem in political theory. It deals with the respon-siveness of administrative agencies and bureaucracies to elected officials, andthrough them to the citizens themselves. Shafritz and Russell (1997) provideseveral politics-oriented definitions of public administration: it is what govern-ment does (or does not do), it is a phase in the policy-making cycle, it is a primetool for implementing the public interest, and it does collectively what cannotbe done as well individually (pp. 613). It is thus impossible to conduct a politics-free discussion of public administration.

Politics is definitely the heart of public administration processes. Politicsfocuses on citizens as members of groups or on highly institutionalized organiza-tions that sound the publics voice before political officials and civil servants.The politics approach to public administration involves strategies of negotiatingand maneuvering among political parties, public opinion, and bureaucracies. Itinvolves an incremental change in society, which relies on open debate, a legiti-mate power struggle, distribution and redistribution of national resources andbudgets, and a heavy body of legislation and law to regulate these processes.Perhaps the most obvious linkage between politics and public administrationstems from policy-making and policy-implementation processes. It is naive todistinguish political systems from professional administration systems in regardto public policy. As Rosenbloom (1998:13) suggested, public administratorsinvolvement in the public policy cycle makes politics far more salient in thepublic sector than in private enterprise. Public administrators are perforce re-quired to build and maintain political support for the policies and programs they

The Legacy of Public Administration 9

implement. They must try to convince members of the legislature, chief execu-tives, political appointees, interest groups, private individuals, and the public atlarge that their activities and policies are desirable and responsive.

The theoretical contribution of political science to the study of public ad-ministration is therefore multifaceted; it invokes better understanding of thepower relations and influence dynamics that take place inside and among bureau-cracies (Pfeffer, 1992) and determine their operative function as well as out-comes. Here, party politics acknowledges that the investigation of pressure andinterest groups and the better understanding of conflict relationships among vari-ous players of the state are used to build models of decision making and policydetermination that are rational and realistic. In addition, political psychology isimplemented more thoroughly to explore personality traits of political leaders aswell as public servants. For the same reasons, budgetary studies and policy analy-sis methods are an integral facet of the political approach, which assumes limitedrationality as well as high constraints of time and resources on the administrativeprocess.

From a somewhat different perspective, Ellwood (1996:51) argued that po-litical science has simultaneously everything and little to offer public manage-ment scholars, hence also public administration scholars: everything, becauseboth fields deal with political behavior, processes, and institutions; little, becausepolitical science deals only with the constraints forced on the administrative pro-cess with no practical contribution to the managerial improvement of public sys-tems. Ellwood further agrees that both fields rely on other academic disciplines,employing techniques of anthropology, economics, game theory, historiography,psychology, and social psychology, as well as sociology. In line with this it wouldbe only natural to conclude that the relationship between political science andpublic administration is described as an on-again, off-again romance. Kettl (1993:409) suggested that the importance of administration lay at the very core of thecreation of the American Political Science Association . . . when five of the firsteleven presidents of the association came from public administration and playeda major role in framing the discipline. As Ellwood puts it, over the years publicadministration became public but also administration; it shifted its focus to amore practical and client service orientation that necessarily incorporated knowl-edge from other social disciplines, such as personnel management, organizationalbehavior, accounting, and budgeting. The methodological contribution of a politi-cal approach to public administration studies is also meaningful. Here a macro-analysis is necessary if one seeks an understanding of the operation of largebureaucracies and their coexistence with political players. A political approachdelivers these goods by means of comparative studies, policy evaluation methods,rational choice models, and simulations, as well as content analysis techniquesand other tools useful for observation of the political sphere.

10 Vigoda

THE VOICE OF SOCIETY: SOCIOLOGICAL AND CULTURALAPPROACHES TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The second approach that is highly relevant to the understanding of public admin-istration bodies and processes rests on a sociological apparatus. It has a veryclose relationship with the political approach, so it is sometimes defined as asociopolitical view of public systems or as a study of political culture (Shafritzand Russell, 1997:76), yet its core prospects are beyond the political context.The voice of society has a special role in the study of public administration arenasnot only for democratic and political reasons but also because of its fundamentalimpact on informal constructs of reality such as tradition, social norms and values,ethics, lifestyle, and other human interactions.

The theoretical contribution of a sociological and cultural approach to pub-lic administration consists of several elements. An essential distinction must bedrawn between inside and outside cultural environments. An outside culturalsphere incorporates informal activities and behaviors of small groups as well asof larger social units that interact with the administrative system. Included in thiscategory are customers groups, private organizations, not-for-profit volunteeringorganizations, and citizens at large. Considerable attention has been turned tocommunities and to the idea of communitarianism (Etzioni, 1994; 1995), as wellas to the emergence of the third sector as rapidly changing conventional structuresand beliefs in modern societies. An inside cultural environment is related to inter-nal organizational dynamics and to the behaviors of people as work groups, thusit is sometimes termed organizational culture or organizational climate (Schein,1985). Like the outside organizational environment it has some observable con-structs, but it mostly expresses many covert phases. In many ways, culture isto the organization what personality is to the individuala hidden, yet unifyingtheme that provides meaning, direction and mobilization (Kilmann et al., 1985).It includes basic assumptions as to what is right and what is wrong for a certainorganizational community, the norms and beliefs of employees, and unseen socialrules and accepted codes of behavior, as well as tradition, language, dress, andceremonies with common meaning to all organizational members. All these dis-tinguish us from them, promote group cohesiveness, and improve commoninterests.

Several sociological sources can be effective in analyzing public adminis-tration dynamics. First is group theory, which is also closely related to the studyof leaders and leadership. Second is ethnic studies, which concentrate on minori-ties and race questions, such as equity, fair distribution of public goods, andintegration in productive public activity. Third is communication and the techno-logical information revolution, which have had a radical effect on society, publicpolicy, and public administration units and structure. Information networks andcommunication have become an imminent feature of the cultural investigation

The Legacy of Public Administration 11

of bureaucracies. For many years a plausible approach in management scienceand in the study of public administration called for the formulation of a universaltheory in the field, one that is culture-free and applicable across all nations. Withthe passage of time and with giant technological developments this perceptionbecame ever more anachronistic.

Today the goal of a universal administrative paradigm is hardly achievable.An alternative viewpoint is more balanced and contingent. It argues that basicsimilarities do exist between public organizations and public administrationmechanisms, but at the same time intraorganizational and extraorganizationalculture fulfills a major mediating role. Culture in its broad context constantlyaffects the operation of bureaucracies as well as political systems that interactwith them. Such examples as theory Z of W. Ouchi (1981) and lessons frommore recent Chinese and Eastern European experiences stimulated the scientificcommunity and initiated culture-oriented ventures in general management inquiry(Hofstede, 1980). They especially promoted the investigation of work values andculture-oriented management in private but also in public arenas. Many scholarsbecame convinced of the necessity of incorporating social and cultural variablesas core elements in the administrative analysis of public arenas. A sociologicaland cultural approach to public administration also made an important method-ological contribution. It initia