1st Edition
Public Administration in the 21st Century A Global South Perspective
Public Administration has experienced a fundamental rethinking of its basic objectives, concepts and theories during the 21st century.
This book examines the transformations happening in global societies, the economy and in politics, to trace the trajectory of public administration as an academic discipline as well as being a focus of social science research. It presents a reassessment of governance in heterogenous developing countries that goes beyond the traditional Weberian bureaucratic model, toward new models of organization and management, informed by their legal, constitutional, economic and political needs, aspirations and ground realities. This is especially important in relation to the marginalized sections of society that primarily rely on citizen entitlements through public service delivery systems. The author looks at widening the range and scope of public administrative agencies with the gradual cooperation of multiple actors, such as the civil society, people at large and even the private sector, in a partnering role. The author revisits the discipline to tackle intellectual dilemmas that current governance theories and practices are confronting, or will have to confront in future administrative situations.
There will be key discussions on mandates and challenges for the state regarding the rising South; this book will be indispensable to scholars and researchers of politics, especially governance and public policy, sociology and development studies. It will also be of interest to bureaucrats, NGOs and government officials.
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. The changing world of the 21st century: building new administrative capacities
2. The discipline of public administration today
3. The public and its policies
4. Democracy, the state and the citizen
5. Good governance to governing development today: comparative research studies
6. Public administration in the 21st century: dilemmas and challenges
7. Summing up
Index
Biography
Rumki Basu is Professor of Public Administration and former Head of the Department of Political Science at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. She was also Director of Sarojini Naidu Centre for Women’s Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia. She has published 12 books and 40 journal articles on issues of public policy and governance, international organization and the political economy of development in India. She has presented papers at the World Congress of Political Science in Berlin (1994), Seoul (1997), Santiago (2009), Madrid (2012) and Poznan (2016), in addition to participating in international workshops. She has received the Indian Council of Social Science Research Teacher Fellowship Award and the Bharat Jyoti Award (2013) from the India International Friendship Society. Basu’s prominent works include Economic Liberalization and Poverty Alleviation: Social Sector Expenditures and Centre–State Relations (2000); Public Administration: Concepts and Theories (2007); Globalization and the Changing Role of the State (edited, 2008); Governance and Human Capital: The 21st Century Agenda (co-edited, 2011); Democracy and Good Governance: Reinventing the Public Service Delivery System in India (co-edited, 2014); Public Administration in India: Mandates, Performance and Future Perspectives (2015); and Governance in South Asia (co-edited, 2016).
