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We challenge the usefulness of the ʹpublic valueʹ approach in Westminster systems with their dominant hierarchies of control, strong roles for ministers, and tight authorizing regimes underpinned by disciplined two-party systems. We identify two key confusions: about public value as theory, and in defining who are ʹpublic managersʹ. We identify five linked core assumptions in public value: the benign view of large-scale organizations; the primacy of management; the relevance of private sector experience; the downgrading of party politics; and public servants as platonic guardians. We identify two key dilemmas around the ʹprimacy of party politicsʹ and the notion that public managers should play the role of platonic guardians deciding the public interest. We illustrate our argument with short case studies of: the David Kelly story from the UK; the ʹchildren overboardʹ scandal in Australia; the ʹmad cow diseaseʹ outbreak in the UK; the Yorkshire health authority's ʹtea-partiesʹ, and the Cave Creek disaster in New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of the new public management in the 1980s led to recurring challenges to the administrative traditions of the public service in Australia, Canada and the UK. This article analyses how the heads of the public service articulate the traditions of 'constitutional bureaucracy' found in Westminster systems of parliamentary government and selectively draws on past understandings to understand present-day changes. We describe traditions under challenge that reshape reforms as reforms reshape them. We conclude that the heads of public services have found 'space' or 'voice' to articulate innovative ways of combining past traditions with new organising principles of governance. In each case, it is not a question of 'in with the new, out with the old', but of 'in with the new alongside key components of the old.' The myths and legends of yore remain germane to the modern public service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A preface to Vol. 84, No. 4, 2006 issue of "Public Administration" is presented.

This article revisits the country case studies and seeks to answer two questions. What are the strengths and weaknesses of an interpretive approach? What lessons can we draw from our analysis of public sector reform? To assess an interpretive approach, we discuss: the issues raised in identifying beliefs; the meaning of explanation; how to select traditions; the shift from prediction to informed conjecture and policy advice as storytelling. To assess the lessons, we outline our preferred story of public sector reform. We seek to show that an interpretive approach produces insights for students of public administration. We argue it remains feasible to give policy advice to public sector managers by telling them stories and providing rules of thumb (proverbs) to guide managerial practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand governance, we ask who is telling the story from within which tradition. We argue there is no essentialist notion of governance but at least four conceptions each rooted in a distinctive tradition. The first section of the paper describes the relevant traditions: Tory, Liberal, Whig and Socialist. The second section describes the different notions of governance associated with each tradition; intermediate institutions, marketizing public services, reinventing the constitution and trust and negotiation. We explain these distinct conceptions of governance as responses to the dilemmas of inflation and state overload. In the conclusion, we summarize how and why traditions change, concluding, there is no such thing as governance, but only the differing constructions of the several traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report describes the flow of manuscripts and the contents of the journal before briefly surveying each section of the journal. It ends with a résumé of changes during the year and a thank you to the many people who have helped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Views the new public management (NPM) as a prime example of the laws of unintended consequences in action in the United Kingdom. Dimensions of NPM; Unintended consequences of reform; Interpretation of the changes from marketization to networks.

Focuses on the state of public service in Great Britain. Administrative reforms; Public administration policies; Trends; Public intervention to government policies; Alternative service delivery systems.

Surveys developments in the profession of public administration in Great Britain in the 1980s. Growth of a mini-industry on research and research methodology in public administration; Source of research grants; Statistical portrait of the academic profession of public administration.

Provides a summary of the future agendas for research offered by the participants to the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) Future Research Agenda Workshop, organized under the major topics of inquiry. Workshop purpose of developing a common understanding of the research imperatives and interests for the public service and academic members of the ANZSOG consortium.