Synopses & Reviews
Public administration has evolved into an extraordinarily complex form of governance employing traditional bureaucracy, quasi-government public organizations, and collaborative networks of nongovernmental organizations. Analyzing and improving government performance—a matter of increasing concern to citizens, elected officials, and managers of the organizations themselves—has in turn become a much more fraught undertaking. Understanding the new complexities calls for new research approaches.
The Art of Governance presents a fresh palette of research based on a new framework of governance that was first developed by coeditor Laurence E. Lynn, Jr., with Carolyn J. Heinrich, and Carolyn J. Hill in their book, "Improving Governance: A New Logic for Empirical Research." That book identified how the relationships among citizens, legislatures, executive and organizational structures, and stakeholders interact, in order to better diagnose and solve problems in public management.
This volume takes that relational concept into new realms of conceptualization and application as it links alternative institutional and administrative structures to program performance in different policy areas and levels of government. Collectively, the contributors begin to paint a new picture of how management "matters" throughout the policy process. They illuminate how, at different levels of an organization, leadership and management vary—and explore both the significance of structural systems and the importance of alternative organizational forms for the implementation of public policies.
The Art of Governance shows that effective governance is much more complex than paint-by-number.But if the variety of forms and models of governance are analyzed using advanced theories, models, methods, and data, important lessons can be applied that can lead us to more successful institutions.
Synopsis
Public administration has evolved into a tremendously complex form of governance based on collaborative networks of nongovernmental organizations as well as governmental institutions. Analyzing and improving government performance--a matter of increasing concern to citizens, elected officials, and managers of the organizations themselves-has thus also become a much more complex undertaking, calling for new research approaches. This book presents a body of research based on a new framework of governance (first put forth in Improving Governance: A New Logic for Empirical Research) that identifies how the relationships among citizens, legislatures, executive and organizational structures, and stakeholder assessments interact, in order to better understand and solve problems in public management. This volume breaks new ground in linking alternative institutional and administrative structures to program performance in different policy areas and levels of government. Collectively, the chapters shed new light on how management matters throughout the policy process, the variation of the influence of management at different levels of an organization and the role of leadership, the significance of the structure of the systems, and the importance of alternative organizational forms for the delivery of government services.