3rd Edition
Public Administration and Society Critical Issues in American Governance
For instructors who want to expose their students to the social, political, and historical context of the practice of public administration, this book provides a unique approach to the introductory PA course. The author's own text is skilfully interwoven with a collection of seminal readings and documents that illuminate the key issues of past and present for public service professionals in a democratic society.
More than an overview of public administration, Public Administration and Society offers students a broad perspective on the American Founding Era, the relationship of citizens to government, and how the structure of government reflects societal values. The premise of the book is that understanding the societal context is important to the success of the practitioner and to the practitioner's role as a responsible agent of change in a democratic society.
Introductory essays and readings offer students perspectives on five important thematic areas in public administration: the Founding-Era debate over the size and scope of government, the relationship of the community to the individual, public organizations and policy making, values and public administration, and the role of the public service practitioner in a democratic society.
This new edition of features five new readings, and, based on input from adopters, an entirely new section on public policy making (Part IV: Public Organizations and Policy). The author's part-opening sections have all been extensively revised and updated.
Preface
Part I. Introduction to the Central Issues: Context, Change, and Democracy
1. Scope and Content of Public Administration
Instrumental and Contextual Public Administration
The Unique Public Sector
Coercion and Government
Scope and Content of American Governments
2. Time and Change: The Environment of Public Administration
Predispositions and Freedom of Thought
Recurring Themes
A Picture of Change
Historical Peculiarity
Historical Similarity
Change and Economics
3. Democracy, Citizenship, and Governmental Structure
Democratic Citizenship
Precursors of American Democracy
Toward a New American Government
Contemporary Public Service Institutions
Republican Form of Government
The "Vertical" Structure of Government
The "Horizontal" Structure of Government
Politics and Administration
Transition
Part II. Creating a New Democracy
Founding Figures
The Federalist Papers
Federalist Papers 10, 17, and 51
The Anti-Federalist Response
Tocqueville's Concerns About Democracy
Reading 2.1 The Federalist Papers, Nos. 10, 17, & 51
Reading 2.2 Introduction to The Federalist Papers Reader, Frederick Quinn
Reading 2.3 Interpretative Essay, W.B. Allen, Gordon Lloyd, and Margie Lloyd
Reading 2.4 What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear, Alexis de Tocqueville
Part III. Community and the Individual
Reading 3.1 The Public Realm, Thomas E. McCollough
Reading 3.2 Barn Raising, Daniel Kemmis
Reading 3.3 The Nature of Community Governance, Richard C. Box
Part IV. Public Organizations and Policy
Reading 4.1 Democracy, Public Administrators, and Public Policy, Dale Krane
Reading 4.2 A Brief Tour of Public Organization Theory in the United States, Gary S. Marshall
Reading 4.3 The Future of the American Bureaucratic System, Richard J. Stillman II
Part V. Values and Public Administration
Reading 5.1 Unequal America: Causes and Consequences of the Wide--and Growing--Gap Between Rich and Poor, Elizabeth Gudrais
Reading 5.2 Introduction to New Public Administration, H. George Frederickson
Reading 5.3 Practitioners, Richard C. Box
Reading 5.4 Running Government Like a Business: Implications for Public Administration Theory and Practice, Richard C. Box
Part VI. The Public Service Practitioner in a Democratic Society
Reading 6.1 Democracy and Public Service, Mary R. Hamilton
Reading 6.2 The Citizenship Role of the Public Professional: Imagining Private Lives and Alternative Futures, Richard C. Box
Reading 6.3 Transforming Citizenship and Governance, Claire Mostel
Reading 6.4 Obituary: Team Metro, Claire Mostel
Index
Biography
Richard C. Box is Regents/Foundation Professor Emeritus in the School of Public Administration, University of Nebraska at Omaha and Visiting Distinguished Professor in the Hauptmann School of Public Affairs at Park University in Kansas City. He served as a land-use planner and city administrator in local governments in Oregon and California before completing his doctorate at the University of Southern California. His writing focuses on the role of the public-service practitioner in a democratic society and the application of critical social theory in public administration. He is the author or editor of Citizen Governance: Leading American Communities into the 21st Century (Sage Publications, 1998); Public Administration and Society: Critical Issues in American Governance (M.E. Sharpe, 2004, 2009, 2013); Critical Social Theory in Public Administration (M.E. Sharpe, 2005); Democracy and Public Administration (M.E. Sharpe, 2007); and Making a Difference: Progressive Values in Public Administration (M.E. Sharpe, 2008).
