Strategies for Governing: Reinventing Public Administration for a Dangerous Century

Abstract

Excerpt from book. Leaders of modern-day states face an extraordinary challenge. They must devise a strategy for leading their countries toward security, order, prosperity, well-being and justice. They must design and build institutions that will put their strategy into practice. And they must deal with the vicissitudes of time and chance, adapting strategies and institutions in response to altered circumstances and unexpected events. To do this well, leaders need advice about the machinery of government -- how it should be designed and built, how it ought to be run, and how it can be disassembled and reconstructed. Researchers who work in the academic discipline of public administration should be expert in providing this sort of advice. And at one time, they did aspire to provide that sort of expertise. But the field of public administration took a wrong turn forty years ago, and slowly moved away from large and important questions about the governance of modern-day states. The purpose of this book is to map a way back to the main road.

Keywords: Public administration, strategy, governance, institutions, public management