Book Review On Public Administration Essay Research

Book Review On Public Administration Essay, Research Paper

H. George Frederickson s The Spirit of Public Administration is an informative yet drab look at motivating public administrators. Frederickson discusses a wide variety of topics that would be useful to any public administrator, but the verbiage used is a bit difficult for an individual that may be entering into the service field The Spirit of Public Administration is broken down into three parts. These parts are:

Part I: Governance, Politics, and the Public

Part II: Issues of Fairness

Part III: Ethics, Citizenship, and Benevolence in Public Administration

Frederickson did take the initiative to explain public administration and some of its functions before going in-depth on different facets of the role. Some great topics discussed were governance, fairness and social equity, and ethics and public administration.

Frederickson begins in Chapter 1 by explaining that public administration is both a profession and field of study (p. 19). This statement is very exact. Often times public administrators focus on the profession and do not practice studying their role in society. The word administration is the subject of extended study, analysis, and discourse (p. 19). Meaning the role of the public administrator is to lead along with learning as they progress through their careers. Also, in the chapter, Frederickson addresses ways in which to encourage citizen involvement in government. Frederickson acknowledges Benjamin Barber, Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age, 11-point suggestion in achieving the goal:

1. Neighborhood assemblies

2. Television town meetings and a civic communications cooperative

3. Civic education and equal access to information: a civic education postal act and a civic videotext service.

4. Supplementary institutions, including representative town meetings, office holding by lot, decriminalization, and lay justice

5. A national initiative and referendum process

6. Electronic balloting

7. Election by slot; sortition and rotation

8. Vouchers and the market approach to public choice

9. National citizenship and common action: universal citizen service and related volunteer programs and training and employment opportunities

10. Neighborhood citizenship and common action: extensive volunteerism and sweat-equity

11. Democracy in the workplace

Frederickson evaluates that some of these suggestions may be impractical. As an african-american citizen, all of the suggestions seemed impractical. Often times, minority populations do not have the time to participate in meetings and volunteerism. A more effective way may be informative newsletters that provide alternate solutions that are not as time consuming.

Chapter 2 and 3 discusses the political aspect of public administration and governance. In Chapter2, Frederickson discusses the theory on which his book is based upon, the Hamiltonian tradition. This chapter makes valid points in how important it is for administrators to be versed in politics. Administrators are not delegated power through the U.S. Constitution, but state constitutions are political processes allow for administrators to be more involved in government. Through this vital tool, administrators are able to profoundly assist the public. After addressing the political aspect, Frederickson makes a smooth transition in Chapter 3 to discuss governance. Frederickson points out that there are several different definitions in defining governance. Frederickson makes a profound remark by stating, it is likely that governance is the preferred modern theory that attempts to marry politics to administration (p. 92). Frederickson also list five vital points pertaining to governance (p.92):

1. Governance is a positive symbol

2. Governance is a remarkable fusion of popular literature on government reform, popular executive politics, serious empirical scholarship, and modern public administration theory.

3. Public administration as governance has a better windup than pitch.

4. The use of governance as a surrogate for public administration masks the fundamental issue of what ought to be the role of non-elected public officials in a democratic party

There must always be boundaries set between governing and governance. In public administration as governance, it is essential that we do not diminish our institutions to such an extent that we lose our capacity to support the development of sound public policy, as well as our ability to effectively implement that policy (p.94).

Chapter 4 begins Part II a very important aspect of Public Administration, Issues of Fairness. During Chapter 4, Frederickson utilizes different philosophers to express how discretion is part of government and non-profit organizational life. To further reiterate the importance of this topic, Frederickson discusses in Chapter 5 the specifics of fairness and social equity in the theory and practice of public administration. Frederickson reviews theoretical, legal, and analytical developments of the past twenty years as it pertains to fairness and social equity. These two chapters were crucial in actually focusing on the spirit of public administration due to the increased amount of fraud and lack of faith cit

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