Publisher's Synopsis
This is a two-volume set focusing on comparative public administration. A proliferation of concepts, frameworks and theories characterize the discipline of public administration. Public sector processes of decision-making and implementation are approached through a variety of models from different fields such as public policy, policy implementation, management evaluation, organization theory, political economy, rational choice and cultural approaches. This diversity is explored in Volume One, which aims to present central analytical tools which have been developed since the 1980s.;The articles in Volume Two feature a central methodology in the conduct of social enquiry - comparative analysis. The aim is to introduce the reader to articles focussing on the behaviour of public bureaucracies, by performing comparison across countries, time and levels of government, within a single country and across a number of different policy areas. The emphasis is on modelling decision-making and implementation in state institutions.;The text as a whole aims to contribute to the understanding of the advantages of comparative research in the field of public administration. It intends to further the building of cross-national explanatory generalizations about administrative phenomena and policy-making processes, and the identification and delineation of data about various administrative systems that are cross-nationally applicable.
