The Politics of the Administration Process - Couverture souple

In a democracy, efficient public administration is after a delicate balance: the bureaucracy must be powerful enough to be effective, yet accountable to elected officials and the people. Kettl and Fesler understand that the push and pull of political forces make the functions of bureaucracy ever more contentious, but no less crucial to governance. Based on reviewer feedback, and given advances in scholarship and in practice, the authors introduce the crucial topics of ethics, accountability, and leadership early on, utilizing these central ideas as touchstones throughout the book. While this text continues to focus on the core components of public administration such as budgeting, personnel, and implementation it s been thoroughly updated to cover recent developments, including administrative issues spotlighted during the 2008 presidential campaigns, the use of technology in government management, and the changing face of the federal workforce. Fully updated tables and figures feature a wealth of current data, and photos add visual context to the book s core concepts. What was an appendix showcasing fourteen case studies in the previous edition is now a set of fully-integrated case studies one in each chapter that challenges students to apply ideas and analysis as they go. Each case emphasizes the people on the front lines at the local, state, and federal levels with topics ranging from Taser use in law enforcement to the recent economic bailout. Useful discussion questions at the end of each case help shape student responses and in-class conversation.

Donald F. Kettl is the Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor and Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Kettl is the author of numerous books, including The Next Government of the United States: Why Our Institutions Fail Us and How to Fix Them, The Global Public Management Revolution, and Leadership at the Fed. Kettl has twice won the Louis Brownlow Award for the best book in public administration, for The Transformation of Governance: Public Administration for Twenty-first Century America in 2003 and System under Stress: Homeland Security and American Politics in 2005. In 2008, he was awarded the John Gaus Award of the American Political Science Association for lifetime contributions to the scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration. Kettl has consulted broadly for government organizations and is a regular columnist for Governing magazine. James W. Fesler, who died in 2005, was the Alfred Cowles Professor Emeritus of Government at Yale University. He received the Dwight Waldo Award of the American Society for Public Administration for distinguished contributions to the professional literature of public administration and the John Gaus Award in 1988. His books include Area and Administration, The Independence of State Regulatory Agencies, and a special new edition of Area and Administration, which appeared posthumously in 2008.