PAP20306: Studying Public Governance: Key Concepts And Leading Authors (PAP20306)
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Nieuwe samenvatting
Introduction
Divide between private and public policy: Means through which power is exercised.
Private and public are assumed to be mutually exclusive.
- Private policy (realm): outside the government’s control of regulation and coercion.
government does not have influence and power in the ‘home’ of citizens. Liberty and
freedom. But for example, domestic violence is an exception.
- Public policy (realm): within government’s control.
Public Policy:
- Reactive: made in response to some problem/ or a solution looking for a problem
- Meant to solve a problem
- made in ‘public interest’ (not always the case of course)
- Made by the government
- Interpreted and implemented by public and private actors (perception of the problem may
vary)
1. Differences in scope of public policy
1. Sectors. not limited to a single measure or program but to the whole range of
policies, laws, programs, and measures within a specific policy field.
2. Sub-fields. policies and activities in a specific sub-theme (e.g. water or clean
air policy under environmental policy).
3. Distinct policy issues or targets. One law can contain several policy targets
(e.g. clean air policy may have several targets; urban air, car exhaust
emissions).
4. Policy instruments. specify how a specific activity will be regulated. (e.g. ban
immigration/set quotas).
Lecture 2
Public policy
- Elite struggle over who gets what when and how
- Political decisions for implementing programmes to achieve societal goals
- Whatever government choose to do or not to do
- The sum of government activities, whether acting directly or through agents, as it has
an influence on the life of citizens.
- The struggle over ideas as a medium of exchange and a mode of influence (stone)
private ‘outside the legitimate bounds of governments coercion and regulation’
public, within governments control
Public administration
Relates with public policy with:
- what government does
, - ‘Fundamentally the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge. This makes it
specifically rational’.
- ‘category of public officers on ‘long term’ tenure, so that there can be assurance of
the development of skills and expertise, experience and specialization’
- ‘government in action- the management of public affairs or the implementation of
public policies’
In the policy cycle, part of implementation.
Sometimes thing do go wrong at the implementation part.
“public administration is what government is”
- The whole of structures and processes within which binding decisions are made’
- Public administration as a whole of organizations and activities aimed at the
management of society’
- The shining new modern thing that would solve problems (related to) those
unreliable amateurs – politicians and those dull, tea-drinking, rule-following
bureaucrats
Public administration as a field of study
- From political philosophy to political practice
- Context: post-WWII reconstruction in North America and Europe
Public administration as a multidisciplinary field of study
- Lasswell (1902-1978): shift focus from political structures to policy
sciences
Van poelje
Shift in focus from public law to political action
Kickert en toonen
Looked at US. They strive for consensus and elaboration in the Netherlands. Governance
enragements with many actors involved.
PA in the Netherlands The rise of Dutch Public Administration during the post-
World-War II period is due to:
- Post WW2: growth in welfare (welfare state) and massive reconstruction -> the
need for a scientific approach to guide policy-making -> more policies.
Reconstruction after the war (growth in international government associations
USA). After the war, normative questions came up: what should the government
do to make the lives of the citizens better?
Political philosophy -> became more political practices
,Government
- Institutions and political processes through which public polies are made
- Make decisions that are binding in nature
- Weberian ideal: ‘monopoly on violence’ (policy, army, prisons)
- Is concerned with steering
- Has administrative and political echelons (levels)
- Traditionally divided into distinct branches (judge, executive) (trias politica)
Bureaucratie: Nederlandse vertaling van public administration
Difference government and governance:
Government does have elected leader (center). Governance is more steering multiple
networks trying to create, so no center.
Public governance is how societies coordinate action of individuals, channeling energies to
solve problems, whether by government or in coordination with non-state actors.
Public governance in the Netherlands: Deliberation and compromise
The changing public: from government to governance
- Shift as a legacy of Reagan and thatcher
- Blurring of boundaries between state and private sector
o Neoliberalism: encroachment of market-based principles in wider spheres of
the social/public
o Networked governance: interorganizational efforts at solving problems,
steered by government.
- Good governance, and the return of government
Policy context
How do context shape policy and administration?
‘see administration in terms of its environment because it enables us to understand
differences in administration between different societies which would be inexplicable if we
were limited to viewing administration analytically in terms of universals of administration’
waldo, context is important
Politics matter!
o - Relative power of political groups (political parties, interest groups)
o - ‘National mood’
o - Organizational structure of government (degree of centralization; veto
points; separation of powers)
Economics matters!
o - Size of economic production:
- Creates fiscal space for public interventions and choices
- Structures social demands
, o - Sectoral distribution and technologies of production:
- Structure strength of interest groups
- Structure place in the global economy
Lecture 3: historical
development of the field
Five different stages:
1. precursors of PA
2. establishment of PA and orthodoxy
3. counter current to orthodoxy
4. managerial approaches to PA
5. counter-current to managerial approaches
At first PA did not exist as an academic discipline
(1) Classical approach of PA
late 19th century
- Max weber: An ideal bureaucracy model, Weber’s theory of bureaucracy: hierarchy,
impersonality, rationality, standardization, formalization, competence. Little
individual freedom.
- Taylor
- Woodrow Wilson
- Separation/Dichotomy between politics and administration.
- Public and private interests are separated.
- Administration under the formal control of political
- Hierarchical model of bureaucracy
- Staffed by permanent, salaried and impartial officials selected on basis of expertise,
and motivated by public interest
- Administering and implementing, without expression of personal views on
government policies.
Why a separation between politics and administration?
- Weber: Came up with ideal bureaucracy based on legal-rational authority.
Bureaucrats have become too powerful, they were influencing politics too much, they were
making political decisions where they were not appointed official politicians. That’s why they
should be separated. Bureaucrats should be neutral.
- Wilson criticized the spoil system. Administration was outside the realm of
politics. Politics were influencing the bureaucracy too much through the spoil system.
Politicians should make the policies and administrators should only implement these
decisions and not be involved in politics. PA as a discipline. Came up with the
dichotomy.
But critics say it is not possible to separate the two, because they are intertwined.
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