Why do some policies succeed so well while others, in the same sector or country, fail dramatically? The aim of this book is to answer this question and provide systematic research on the nature, sources and consequences of policy failure. The expert contributors analyse and evaluate the success and failure of four policy areas (Steel, Health Care, Finance, HIV and the Blood Supply) in six European countries, namely France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Spain and Sweden. The book is therefore able to compare success and failure across countries as well as policy areas, enabling a test of a variety of theoretical assumptions about policy making and government.
The Effective Public Manager Thoroughly revised and updated, the fifth edition of The Effective Public Manager offers public administrators and students a classic resource and a highly-accessible guide to the fundamentals of leading and managing public organizations. In this new edition the authors cover the key areas of the field and present in-depth analysis through the strategic use of fresh case studies and real-world examples. The book is designed to give real-world managers and aspiring managers the information and tools needed to meet the demands of their jobs directly rather than working around the constraints of government. The Effective Public Manager offers a proven approach to implementing efficient management tools in a dynamic political, organizational, economic, and technological context. New to this edition Information on the transformation of media, both traditional and social An analysis of the changing nature of work and privatization trends An examination of national security and the current thinking regarding accountability, transparency, and crisis communication An online instructor’s guide, which includes discussion questions and updated PowerPoint slides
Public management increasingly takes place in multilevel settings, since most countries are decentralized to one degree or another and most problems transcend and cut across administrative and geographical borders. A collaboration of scholars in the Transnational Initiative on Governance Research and Education (TIGRE Net), Making Multilevel Public
The authors address the crucial differences between the private and public sectors. This concise, practical book provides a roadmap to help new government leaders at all levels accelerate their transitions.
In the flush of enthusiasm to make government work better, reformers from both left and right have urged government to turn as many functions as possible over to the private sector and to allow market competition instill efficiency and choice. In fact, government has been doing just this for years: every major policy initiative launched since World War II has been managed by public-private partnerships. Yet such privatization has not solved government's problems. While there have been some positive results, thee has been far less success than advocates of market competition have promised. In a searching examination of why the "competition prescription" has not worked well, Donald F. Kettl finds that government has largely been a poor judge of private markets. Because government rarely operates in truly competitive markets contracting out has not so much solved the problems of inefficiency, but has aggravated them. Government has often not proved to be an intelligent consumer of the goods and services it has purchased. Kettl provides specific recommendations as to how government can become a "smart buyer," knowing what it wants and judging better what it has bought. Through detailed case studies, Kettl shows that as market imperfections increase, so do problems in governance and management. He examines the A-76 program for buying goods and services, the FTS-2000 telecommunications system, the Superfund program, the Department of Energy's production of nuclear weapons, and contracting out by state and local governments. He argues that government must be more aggressive in managing contracts if it is to build successful partnerships with outside contractors. Kettl maintains that the answer is not more government, but a smarter one, which requires strong political leadership to refocus the bureaucracy's mission and to change the bureaucratic culture.
Written by scholars who have been at the forefront of the NPG debate as well as by scholar-practitioners, this book provides lessons learned from experience on how networked, contract-based and partnership-centered approaches to government can be undertaken in ways that preserve the values at the center of the American constitutional and political system.
Since it was first published more than twenty years ago, The Effective Public Manager has become the classic resource for public administrators and students. The fourth edition of groundbreaking work synthesizes the current thinking in the field and presents practical lessons and tools in a highly accessible format. Focused on helping real-world managers and managers-to-be meet the demands of their jobs head-on rather than working around the constraints of government, this book offers a fresh approach to implementing effective management tools in a dynamic political, organizational, economic, and technological context.
A Brookings Institution Press and Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation publication This book documents a worrisome gap between principles and practice in democratic governance. The State of Access is a comparative, cross-disciplinary exploration of the ways in which democratic institutions fail or succeed to create the equal opportunities that they have promised to deliver to the people they serve. In theory, rules and regulations may formally guarantee access to democratic processes, public services, and justice. But reality routinely disappoints, for a number of reasons—exclusionary policymaking, insufficient attention to minorities, underfunded institutions, inflexible bureaucracies. The State of Access helps close the gap between the potential and performance in democratic governance.
