The Big Questions of Public Administration in a Democracy

What are the big questions which should concern practitioners and students of public administration? Behn recently offered three big questions of public management, involving micromanagement, motivation, and measurement. Kirlin argues that the big questions of public administration in a democracy ar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Public administration review 1996-09, Vol.56 (5), p.416-423
Main Author: Kirlin, John J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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Academic Achievement
Administrative Organization
Administrative reform. General concepts
Administrative science
Administrative structures
Analysis
Bureaucracy
Citizen Participation
Citizenship
Civics
Collective action
Democracy
Democratic regimes
Educational administration
Geography
Government
Government bureaucracy
Great changes in society
Leadership
Management
Managers
Organizational behavior
Political aspects
Political leadership
Political processes
Politics
Polities
Priorities
Public administration
Public sector organizations
Reconciliation
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Description
Summary:What are the big questions which should concern practitioners and students of public administration? Behn recently offered three big questions of public management, involving micromanagement, motivation, and measurement. Kirlin argues that the big questions of public administration in a democracy are different from those of public management and develops four criteria by which to judge big questions. Seven big questions of public administration in a democracy are offered, concerning: tools of collective action supporting a democratic polity; appropriate roles of nongovernmental collective action; tradeoffs between designs based on function versus geography; national versus local political arenas; when decisions are isolated from politics; balance among neutral competence, representativeness, and leadership; and societal learning.
ISSN:0033-3352
1540-6210
DOI:10.2307/977040