Debating Public Administration Management Challenges, Choices, and Opportunities ASPA Series in Public Administration and Public Policy Series

Dialog between practitioners and academics has increasingly become the exception rather than the rule in contemporary public administration circles. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, Debating Public Administration: Management Challenges, Choices, and Opportunities tackles some of the major management challenges, choices, and opportunities of the twenty-first century facing public managers across various subfields of public administration.

Informed by contemporary pressures on public managers to reconceptualize purpose, redefine administrative rationality, recapitalize human assets, reengage resources, and revitalize democratic constitutionalism, the book offers students, practitioners, and researchers an opportunity to take stock and ponder the future of practice and research in public administration. Organized by three sets of major management challenges facing the field?Rethinking Administrative Rationality in a Democratic Republic, Recapitalizing Organizational Capacity, and Reconceptualizing Institutions for New Policy Challenges?the book takes an uncommon approach to the study of these topics. In it, leading practitioners and academics comment on condensed versions of articles appearing in the Theory to Practice feature of Public Administration Review (PAR) from 2006 through 2011.

The authors and commentators focus on some of the best current research, draw lessons from that literature for practice, and identify gaps in research that need to be addressed. They expertly draw out themes, issues, problems, and prospects, providing bulleted lessons and practical takeaways. This makes the book a unique one-stop resource for cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral, and cross-professional exchanges on contemporary challenges.

Rethinking Administrative Rationality in a Democratic Republic. Managing Successful Organizational Change in the Public Sector.Back to the Future? Performance-Related Pay, Empirical Research, and the Perils of Persistence. From "Need to Know" to "Need to Share": Tangled Problems, Information Boundaries, and the Building of Public Sector Knowledge Networks. Toward "Strong Democracy" in Global Cities? Social Capital Building, Theory-Driven Reform, and the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Experience. Reinventing Administrative Prescriptions: The Case for Democratic-Constitutional Impact Statements and Scorecards. Recapitalizing Organizational Capacity. Betting on the Future with a Cloudy Crystal Ball? How Financial Theory Can Improve Revenue Forecasting and Budgets in the States. Managing Public Service Contracts: Aligning Values, Institutions, and Markets. A Return to Spoils? Revisiting Radical Civil Service Reform in the United States. A Solution in Search of a Problem? Discrimination, Affirmative Action, and the New Governance. Reconceptualizing Institutions for New Policy Challenges.Is the World "Flat" or "Spiky? Rethinking the Governance Implications of Globalization for Economic Development. Spanning "Bleeding" Boundaries: Humanitarianism, NGOs, and the Civilian-Military Nexus in the Post-Cold War Era. Left High and Dry? Climate Change, Common-Pool Resource Theory, and the Adaptability of Western Water Compacts.