Contemporary public administration reflects its historical roots, as well as contemporary ideas about how the public bureaucracy should be organized and function. This book argues that there are administrative traditions that have their roots centuries ago but continue to influence administrative behaviour. Further within Western Europe, North America, and the Antipodes there are four distinctive administrative traditions: Anglo-American, Napoleonic, Germanic, and Scandinavian. These are n...

Making effective public policies is a difficult task, but considering policymaking as a problem of design analogous to architecture or engineering can assist in that process. This book outlines three vital components of policy design: understanding the causes behind the problem being addressed; identifying means of intervention, including selection and implementation of policy instruments; and evaluation and development of good policy understanding.

"This book is an excellent choice for anyone looking to bring the complicated world of public policy to their classroom." – Ben Galloway, University of ArkansasNow in its Thirteenth Edition, American Public Policy provides a comprehensive yet accessible overview of the policymaking process, from procedural approaches and policy instruments to in-depth analysis of specific policy issues. Not shying away from the complexity of governmental p...

Public Administration: Research Strategies, Concepts, and Methods explores how scholars of public administration and institutional politics can improve their analysis by focusing on the contextual particularities of their research problems and considering the use of multiple theories and methods. The book functions as an introduction to central themes of public administration and related traditions of research, but also proposes a new pluralist approach for studying public institutions.

B. Guy Peters presents a critique of conventional policy design methods, placing emphasis on the need to formulate interconnecting designs for issues that cross multiple policy areas. He advocates the use of analytic categories for understanding problems rather than functional categories, such as defence and health, to change the perspective of problems and modernise policy design.Whereas previous literature takes a top-down, technocratic approach, this new perspective emphasises t...

A foundational guide to understanding how bureaucracies differ—and why those differences matter.The comparative study of public policy once promised to make major contributions to our understanding of government. Much of that promise now appears unfulfilled. What accounts for this decline in intellectual fortunes and change in intellectual fashion? Comparing Public Bureaucracies seeks to understand why. One of the principal answers is that there i...

Decision-making is at the heart of governing and governance, and is a more challenging task compared to just a few decades ago as a result of increasing social complexity and globalization. In this book, B. Guy Peters and Jon Pierre propose a new framework for the comparative analysis of governance, arguing that government remains a central actor in governance. By articulating the functionalist dimension of governance they show how goal setting, resource mobilization, decision-making, impl...

How are institutions formed and how do they change? How do institutions interact to produce action? And how formal do institutions need to be to become effective actors of governance? This textbook provides a thorough examination of institutions from a number of theoretical perspectives to identify their key characteristics.Key features of the fourth edition:Eight consistent questions are used to highlight the similarities and differences between institutions, using b...

Written by B. Guy Peters, a leading authority in the field, this comprehensive exploration of the political and policy making roles of public bureaucracies is now available in a fully revised seventh edition, offering extensive, well-documented comparative analysis of the effects of politics on bureaucracy.Updates to this edition include:All new coverage of public administration in Latin America and Africa, with special attention paid to the impact of New Public Manag...

Ideas are important in shaping the policy choices of governments. But many ideas that have not been successful in the past continue to be used by policymakers, and some good ideas tend not to be adopted. This Element will focus on why governments make these poor policy choices. We will discuss a number of examples of 'zombie ideas' that refuse to die, and then discuss the factors that are associated with their survival. Those factors occur at the elite, the organizational and the societal ...

Routledge is proud to publish the fifth edition of this comprehensive, comparative exploration of the political and policy-making roles of public bureaucracies in nations around the world. Written by a leading authority in the field, it offers an extensive, well documented, comparative analysis stressing the effects of politics and organised interests on bureaucracy. New to the fifth edition: *a new chapter on administrative reform *more material on administration in developing countries *...

Written by a well-respected health and public policy expert, this book provides a comprehensive exploration of the under-appreciated role of public health policy in the United States’ medical care industry.The book offers students:• an introduction to the fundamentals of health policy, with comparative perspectives from other countries;• analysis of major health care programmes, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and regulatory programs;• ...