PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Public Administration: An Action Orientation

Public Administration: An Action Orientation

Introduction

The book “Public Administration: An Action Orientation” encourages students to become active participants in public administration. Robert B. Denhardt and Janet V. Denhardt instruct readers on how to influence the operations of public agencies helping them learn to get involved and effect positive changes, regardless of whether they are working outside the agency as citizens or within the agency as managers. With a strong emphasis on ethics, Public Administration: An Action Orientation introduces the theories and scholarly literature of the field. In addition, it increases student's chances of being effective by developing practical skills such as personal management, communication, delegation, motivation, and decision making. Important topics such as nonprofit management, the global dimensions of public administration, and organizational theory are covered thoroughly in this book (Robert B, 2005).

Discussion

The book “Public Administration: An Action Orientation” is about the state “in action” and “in interaction”. Traditionally the organization and the action of the state have generally been seen as coterminous with the concept of government. Over the last thirty years, however, an increasing number of academics, experts, and practitioners have begun to differentiate between public administration that is government and that which they label governance. According to this view, societies and economies have been transformed to such an extent that public authorities have been obliged to change both their internal modes of functioning and the way they engage with non-state actors. More precisely, proponents of the concept of governance consider that it not only encapsulates changes in public administration itself but acts as a catalyst to the transformation of state-society relations (Denhardt, 1999).

The book encompasses a vast range of issues and activities. One way of grasping this diversity is to distinguish between two sets of questions: How public authorities are organized and how they seek to act within societies through making and implementing public policy. In short, public administration is about the state “in action” and “in interaction.” Traditionally the organization and the action of the state have generally been seen as coterminous with the concept of government. Over the last thirty years, however, an increasing number of academics, experts, and practitioners have begun to differentiate between public administration that is government and that which they label governance. According to this view, societies and economies have been transformed to such an extent that public authorities have been obliged to change both their internal modes of functioning and the way they engage with nonstate actors. More precisely, proponents of the concept of governance consider that it not only encapsulates changes in public administration itself but acts as a catalyst to the transformation of state-society relations (Robert B, 2005).

These contentions about the relationship between public administration and governance will be examined in two parts. The first sets out to discover how and why governance has so frequently come to be used as a narrative with which to describe, and often rationalize, a range of “new” public policies and statesociety ...