The summary of the book also incorporates the lectures and concisely the reading materials of Allison, Downs and Wilson. Note, this document only summarised the first four weeks of the course.
Summary Understanding Public Administration ch. 1-5 + 8
Summary: International to public administration (IPA)
Samenvatting Understanding Public Administration, ISBN: 9781137575449 Understanding public administration
All for this textbook (5)
Written for
Universiteit Leiden (UL)
Bestuurskunde
Introduction to Public Administration (6453728)
All documents for this subject (1)
1
review
By: marikabenjert • 3 year ago
Seller
Follow
19MF
Reviews received
Content preview
Inhoud
Week 1: What is meant by public?.........................................................................................................2
Politics - administration......................................................................................................................2
State – government............................................................................................................................3
Public – private...................................................................................................................................5
Regimes..............................................................................................................................................7
Week 2: Organisational structures.........................................................................................................8
Government structures......................................................................................................................8
Stability of government structures.....................................................................................................9
Colonies............................................................................................................................................11
French colonies.............................................................................................................................11
English colonies............................................................................................................................11
Spanish colonies...........................................................................................................................11
Organisations....................................................................................................................................12
Management................................................................................................................................13
Organisation theories...................................................................................................................14
Public organisations......................................................................................................................15
Bureaucracy..................................................................................................................................16
The birth of bureaucracy..............................................................................................................17
Week 3: Leadership and management.................................................................................................18
Recruitment......................................................................................................................................19
Management....................................................................................................................................20
Middle management....................................................................................................................21
Top management and leadership.................................................................................................21
Motivation........................................................................................................................................22
Solutions for low morality and motivation...................................................................................24
Public v private management (Alison)..............................................................................................27
1
,Week 1: What is meant by public?
Woodrow Wilson started the beginning of PA. It is an applied science since the research is used to
improve the public administration. It uses political science, economics, sociology and also the study
of law. It is to study of what the government can do properly and how to do it the most rationally. It
analyses the effectiveness of public policy, performance of public organisations and the relationships
between political-administrative relationships.
Discipline Used for
Social psychology Decision making
History Long term trends & dynamics
Economics Budgeting process and limitations
Political science Rationality and legitimacy for political conflicts
Recently it is discussed if there are more important factors than rationality? Like inclusion,
citizenship, collaboration, engagement and equity. This means that this value-government is not only
expected to create public value but to ensure normative and unifying elements in public values.
Famous PA researchers:
Ostrom: Tragedy of the commons
Simon: Bounded rationality (not all people are fully rational and use heuristics)
Politics - administration
Politics is focused on the struggle of power and political conflicts, PA is more solution focused.
Goodnow describes politics as the expression of the will of the state and the Administration as the
executer of that will (Goodnow).
Politics Administration
Elected Officials Appointed Civil Servants
Policy making Policy implementation
Ideology Expertise
Principal Agent
Values Facts
Publicity Discretion
Goals Means
Legislative branch Executive branch
Not always clear cut:
Even small choices have political results
Confirm distinction
o Council-manager government form (municipalities in the US)
Disconfirms distinction
o Appointed judges can have political impacts
o Due to complexity of policy and the expertise of the administrator, it will most likely
gets it way
o 3rd world countries can be in both legislative and executive branch
o Ministers make and implement policy in the Netherlands
Politics is about the power struggle
Policy is a problem solving with societal impact: overall plan from administration
2
, State – government
A state has the following four preliminaries
Territory
Population
External sovereignty (recognised by UN)
Government
Population has the
Same language
Common understanding
Having a shared meaning to words
Common culture
Sovereignty can be divided into internal and external. External sovereignty must be recognised by
other states (and the un). This also mean it has the right to self-govern and be independent. Internal
sovereignty is the authority to rule and make/enforce laws within a region. This authority can be split
into: charismatic, traditional or rational-legal authority. The latter one makes it possible that the
authority is not an individual.
Government is an element of the state and is the totality of the political and administrative
organisations/institutions. These organisations/institutions are authorised to allocate collective
binding values and services. It controls the following
Economic incentives
o Subsidies
Public expenditure
o How to tax
o Monopoly of taxes
Linking government controlled benefits to behaviour
o Unemployment benefits
Formal regulation
o Legislation to control behaviour
o Monopoly of violence
Voluntary regulation
o Agreements with other governments
o Marrakesh pact e.g.
Other duties (from lecture)
o Security/law and order
o Providing basic needs
o Managing external relationships with other governments
3
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller 19MF. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $4.89. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
