Search

This is the last of four Last Lectures delivered by George Frederickson before his death in 2020. In “Public Management and Authentic Innovation,” Frederickson draws on key studies to demythologize the claims around the origins and diffusion of innovation in the private and nonprofit sectors. He compares and contrasts the managed innovation model with a sustaining innovation model and provides provocative insights into the relevant contributions and limitations of rankings, awards and report cards; strategic planning; and the iron cage.

This is the third of four Last Lectures delivered by George Frederickson before his death in 2020. In “Thick Social Equity,” Frederickson returns to an abiding theme of his scholarship: the advancement of social equity in public administration research and practice. He traces the progress in the literature over the decades from “thin” to “thick” social equity, praising advancements in theory and empirical research in the twenty-first century, while decrying the current state of social inequity, particularly in the United States.

This article is an intellectual history of the noble endeavors and challenges involved in the creation and evolution of the American Review of Public Administration. It traces the journal’s development from its beginning as the Midwest Review of Public Administration ( MRPA) under the leadership of Park College professor Jerzy Hauptmann, a Polish intellectual who entered the United States at the end of World War II. Hauptmann launched MRPA with a regional focus, welcoming contributions from a variety of voices in public service–related occupations. A political scientist suspicious of the power of national governments, Hauptmann favored a less top-down regional approach. The article provides insights from the late 1960s into the growing field of public administration. Behind the scenes, the article chronicles the financial challenges, details of manuscript review processes, and more in an initially low-technology world. This history is also multi-institutional, detailing the journal’s transfer from a small college to a team of scholars, including coauthor John Clayton Thomas, at the three public administration programs of the University of Missouri—in Columbia, Kansas City, and St. Louis. We are indebted to our now-departed colleague and coauthor, George Frederickson, for the idea of writing this article.

This is the second of four Last Lectures delivered by George Frederickson before his death in 2020. In “Giving the Public in Public Administration Its Due,” Frederickson explores the changing, if not dissolving boundaries between the public and private sectors. He admonishes us to be more careful in our understanding and articulation of the meaning of “public” and the extent to which this matters for future theory building as well as practice.

University ranking has high public visibility, the ranking business has flourished, and institutions of higher education have not been able to ignore it. This study of university ranking presents general considerations of ranking and institutional responses to it, particularly considering reactions to ranking, ranking as a self-fulfilling prophecy, and ranking as a means of transforming qualities into quantities. The authors present a conceptual framework of university ranking based on three propositions and carry out a descriptive statistical analysis of U.S. and international ranking data to evaluate those propositions. The first proposition of university ranking is that ranking systems are demarcated by a high degree of stability, equilibrium, and path dependence. The second proposition links ranking to institutional identity. The third proposition posits that rankings function as a catalyst for institutional isomorphism. The conclusion reviews some important new developments in university ranking.

In 1995, U.S. News and World Report ( U.S. News) released its first ranking of public affairs master’s degree programs. The rankings have been conducted every 3 years since and have grown in importance to public policy and public administration programs. This study considers the history and background of ranking public policy and administration graduate programs, the rationale used by U.S. News, and the methodology used by U.S. News. This is followed by a longitudinal analysis of these rankings from 1995 to 2016. Findings are presented in a conceptual framework of academic rankings using concepts of equilibrium, specialization, diffusion of innovations, and institutional isomorphism. The implications of this framework and the findings of our analysis are spelled out for public affairs deans, directors, and faculty seeking to improve their ranking as well as those seeking to hold on to their present rankings.

The most destructive effect of "privatization" has been the devaluation of public service to just another arena in which one can achieve essentially private ambitions. "Careerism" has been substituted for idealism. Careerism, rooted in an egoistic, utilitarian philosophy, is considered to be the primary inducement in almost all American management theory. The ideal of American democracy assumes that a special relationship should exist between public servants and citizens. For them, the success of the governmental system was dependent upon the prior acceptance, by both the public servants and the citizens, of the truth of the regime values. Therefore, public servants must inculcate the patriotism of benevolence. Idealistic this charge may be, but we are bound, by the covenants of our inception, to both idealism and practicality. It is within the patriotism of benevolence that the ideal and the practical are fused.

Consider the oath taken by citizens of the Athenian city-state: We will ever strive for the ideals and sacred things of the city, both alone and with many; we will unceasingly seek to quicken the sense of public duty; we will revere and obey the city's laws; we will transmit this city not only not less, but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us. With this oath, citizens accepted the responsibility to conduct effectively the temporal affairs of the city. They also pledged to pass the city on to the next generation in better condition than they received it. The Athenian public service ethic called for more than equality between the generations.(1) My purpose in this article is to consider issues of intergenerational equality and to ask the question: can public officials correctly be said to have obligations to future generations? It seems that issues of intergenerational fairness are all around us. The current debate over the national deficit rings with charges that the debt was incurred by a profligate generation to be paid for by their children and their childrens children (Aaron, Bosworth, and Burtless, 1989). This debate is aside from the issue of which groups--lower, middle, or upper classes--benefitted most from the run-away federal borrowing of the 1980s. Proposed solutions turn entirely on the question of who will pay if much of the deficit is not passed on to coming generations (Kotikoff, 1991). The health care finance issue is also mostly about fairness and equity between the insured and uninsured in present generations; the old and those not yet old; the medical and pharmaceutical professions; and the insurance companies. It is claimed with considerable evidence, that unless health care costs are contained the deficit cannot be reduced. Much of the essential thrust of the environmental movement is to preserve the earth's resources for coming generations. The Social Security system is by definition intergenerational. These are but a few of the more visible policy issues that have mostly to do with questions of fairness and equity both between groups in present generations and between present and future generations.(2) The economic growth of the last half of the 20th century, particularly in the United States, seemed to indicate that successive generations do better. Based on this experience it appeared that successive generations have always done better. In fact, in the longer sweep of history intergenerational well-being has never been linear. Changes in human conditions such as nutrition, education, employment, and housing have been cyclical (Neustadt and May, 1986; Smith, 1988; Schlesinger, 1986; Kennedy, 1993; Strauss and Howe, 1991). It is now clear that the generation born from the mid-1960s through the 1970s will likely do less well than their parents at least in terms of comparative income. Indeed, in a recent review of social science research on generational differences it was concluded that the next generation will do worse psychologically, socially and economically than its parents (Whitehead, 1993). Projections are that the differences between generations will widen as the baby-boom generation retires and the children born in the late 1970s and the 1980s start to enter the work force. There is no doubt that elected officials are now especially sensitive to intergenerational issues. This sensitivity is particularly evident in political rhetoric and symbols. Do public officials, including public administrators, in fact, have definable responsibilities to future generations?(3) If so, what are these responsibilities? Are there theories or ethics in public administration that inform our thinking about future generations? Can there be social equity between generations? I deal with these questions, first, with a consideration of the philosophical and ideological perspectives on intergenerational equity; then with a presentation of the compound theory of social equity as a tool for working with intergenerational issues; and finally, with an application of the compound theory of social equity to intergenerational questions of fairness and equity. …

This special issue of ARPA seeks to fill a void in the public administration literature by bringing to the forefront analyses of local government and metropolitan challenges from the perspective of public administrationists: Those who manage cities and counties, and those who both teach and study local government management. The public administration perspective on local government and metropolitan governance has traditionally been grounded in jurisdictions—cities, counties, school and special districts. Today, however, there is often a disjuncture between problems to be solved and jurisdictional boundaries. Accordingly, local governments have changed, and continue to change in response to boundary-crossing challenges as Wheeland, Paulus and Wood evaluate, and new patterns of metropolitan governance are emerging, as Leland and Thurmeier analyze. According to Agranoff, these patterns of change are both horizontal, between and among connected units of local government and vertical, among local governments, states, and the national government. Civic engagement in local public affairs is growing in creative new ways as citizens seek to participate, a topic probed by Nabatchi and Amsler. In the same way that all politics is local, all policy is also local and none is more important than the need to balance the risk of disaster with the need for preparedness, as Donahue, Eckel, and Wilson explore. Together these articles are a timely treatment of compelling challenges facing governments and governance nearest at hand: Our cities, counties, districts and metropolitan areas.

Drawing on perspectives from several academic traditions, we argue that sustainability is best understood as intergenerational social equity. When viewed thusly, it is possible to determine what socially responsible organizations look like in practice. After reviewing historic claims and evidence of sustainability, we turn to modern applications of institutionally based sustainability. We then describe sustainability in the framework of an intergenerational social equity model, claiming that the legacies of social and cultural institutions are evidence of sustainability in action. We conclude with a discussion of what it means for an organization to be socially responsible given our understanding of sustainability.

Such a position is particularly useful for the ethicist who wishes to be part of modem trends and directions while still doing ethics. In this way the ethicist does not spoil the recipe for the managerialism reformers or spit into the managerialism reform wind. Ethicists, like most others, wish to be associated with the excitement and momentum of reform, and they dislike being regarded as retrograde defenders of the status quo-or worse, the shrill voice suggesting that we have failed to learn the lessons of history. If, for example, one argues the position that managerialism itself is inherently unethical and has a propensity for cormption regardless of the adoption of safeguards, it leaves the ethicist defending the status quo, including all the corruption that is part of it-a particularly vulnerable position to defend.

This article adds to the body of knowledge about city managers and council-manager form cities by determining why so few women are found in the ranks of city managers. Using graduates of the University of Kansas master of public administration (MPA) program as our sample, we find that women interested in city management careers face a paradox: Married women have a greater probability of becoming city managers. But if they marry and have children they face issues of relocation, child rearing, and parental care—all of which make it more difficult to get a city management job, not to mention doing that job with its typically higher time demands.

(2010). Searching for Virtue in the Public Life. Public Integrity: Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 239-246.

Theories of metropolitan governance tend to underemphasize the salience of jurisdictional politics and jurisdictional institutions. This paper uses a one-shot prisoner’s dilemma experiment...

(2008). Social Equity in the Twenty-First Century: An Essay in Memory of Philip J. Rutledge. Journal of Public Affairs Education: Vol. 14, Symposium on Social Equity and Diversity, pp. 1-8.

This book is designed to be the definitive statement on social equity theory and practice in public administration. Social equity is often referred to as the "third pillar" in PA, after efficiency and economy. It concerns itself with the fairness of the organization, its management, and its delivery of public services. H. George Frederickson is widely recognized as the originator of the concept and the person most associated with its development and application. The book's introduction and chapters 1-4 offer general descriptions of social equity in terms of its arguments and claims in changing political, economic, and social circumstances, and trace the development of the concept over the past forty years. Chapters 5-9 provide applications of social equity theory to particular policy arenas such as education, or to specific public administration issues such as the range of administrative discretion, the legal context, the research challenges, and social equity in the context of time and generations. Chapters 10 and 11 describe the current state of social equity and look towards the future.

The modern literature of administration (particularly business administration) argues that leadership is one of the keys to organizational effectiveness. That literature is filled with descriptions of powerful, heroic leaders-risk takers, visionaries, entrepreneurs, agents of change. We agree that leadership is one of the keys to organizational effectiveness and to organizational change but suggest that the change-agent style of leadership is often incompatible with organizational effectiveness in the public sector. Durable change (change that lasts) and effective organizational management in the public sector can almost always be traced to leaders who work like gardeners. Understanding public jurisdictions and agencies as gardens and public leaders as gardeners facilitates an accurate and informative description of the multiple factors that contribute to building and improving those jurisdictions and agencies.

Part 1. Ethics and Public Administration in the Twenty-First Century 1. Introduction, Richard K. Ghere 2. State of the Art of Empirical Research on Ethics and Integrity in Governance, Donald C. Menzel Part. 2. Organization Designs that Support Ethical Behavior 3. Developing a Behavioral Model for Ethics Decision Making in Organizations: Conceptual and Empirical Research, Dennis P. Wittmer 4. Update on Moral Reasoning Research and Theory in Public Administration: A Neo-Kohlbergian Perspective, Laura Lee Swisher, Ann-Marie Rizzo, and Marsha A. Marley 5. Power and Ethics: The Communal Language of Effective Leadership, Carole L. Jurkiewicz 6. Public Service Ethics and Administrative Evil: Prospects and Problems, Guy B. Adams and Danny L. Balfour 7. Accountability Through Thick and Thin: Making Assessments and Making Cases, Melvin Dubnick and Ciaran O'Kelly Part 3. Market Forces that Compromise Administrative Ethics 8. Public Ethics and the New Managerialism: An Axiomatic Theory, H. George Frederickson 9. Ensuring Accountability in Public Services: The Dilemma of Measuring Moral and Ethical Performance, Lisa Dicke and Petina Boonyarak 10. Cowboys and the New Public Management: Political Corruption as a Harbinger, Peter deLeon 11. Public Ethics, Legal Accountability, and the New Governance, Laura S. Jensen and Sheila Suess Kennedy Part 4. Unintended Outcomes of Anticorruption Reforms 12. The Cure for a Public Disease: The Foibles and Future of Corruption Control, Frank Anechiarico 13. In the Search of Virtue: Why Ethics Policies Spawn Unintended Consequences, Kathryn G. Denhardt and Stuart C. Gilman Part 5. Administrative Ethics in Global Perspective 14. An Anatomy of Official Corruption, Gerald E. Caiden 15. Public Service Ethics in a Transnational World, Diane E. Yoder and Terry L. Cooper 16. Globalization and Public Service Ethics: Some Directions for Inquiry, Richard K. Ghere 17. Conclusion: Ethics and Public Management-Answers and Questions, Richard K. Ghere About the Editors and Contributors Index.

Public accountability is a hallmark of modern democratic governance and the foundation of the popular performance management movement. Democracy is just an empty exercise if those in power cannot be held accountable in public for their acts and omissions, for their decisions, their policies, and their expenditures. This book offers a finely detailed and richly informed consideration of accountability in both government and the contemporary world of governance. Twenty-five leading experts cover varying aspects of the accountability movement, including multiple and competing accountabilities, measuring accountability, accountability and democratic legitimacy, and accountability and information technology, and apply them to governments, quasi-governments, non-government organizations, governance organizations, and voluntary organizations. Together they provide the most comprehensive consideration of accountability currently available, with a blend of theoretical, empirical, and applied approaches.

Using historical and numerical analysis and the five-part schema, this study finds that over the past 50 years structural modifications and adaptations by American cities have generally followed the standard S curve of the diffusion of innovation. In tests of Kaufman's and Hirshman's theories of epochs of change from representativeness to administrative efficiency, this study determines that mayor-council cities have, in a standard innovation diffusion S curve, adopted many of the key features of council-manager cities, increasing their administrative efficiency. At the same time, council-manager cities, again in an S curve, have adopted many of the key features of mayor-council cities, increasing their political responsiveness. Fewer cities are now either distinctly mayor-council or council-manager in form, and most cities are structurally less distinct, constituting a newly merged or hybrid model of local government—the type III city.

(2004). The Journal of Public Affairs Education at Age Ten: History, Content, and Prospects. Journal of Public Affairs Education: Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 83-89.

(2012). Review of Accountable Governance: Problems and Promises. Journal of Public Affairs Education: Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 611-613.

The events of September 11, 2001, have raised troubling questions regarding the reliability and security of American commercial air travel. This article applies the concepts and logic of highreliability organizations to airport security operations. Contemporary decision theory is built on the logic of limited or buffered rationability and is based on the study of error-tolerant organizations. The concept of high-reliability organizations is based on the study of nearly error-free operations. For commercial air travel to be highly secure, there must be very high levels of technical competence and sustained performance; regular training; structure redundancy; collegial, decentralized authority patterns; processes that reward error discovery and correction; adequate and reliable funding; high mission valence; reliable and timely information; and protection from external interference in operations. These concepts are used to inform early-stage issues being faced by both local airports and the newly established Transportation Security Administration.

The moral justification for bureaucracy in systems of democratic self-government is stronger in Eastern thought than in Western philosophy and practice. In East Asia, moral justification for bureaucracy is broadly understood to be based on the work of Confucius and his followers. Modern scholars confirm that the primary countries of East Asia have distinctive bureaucratic cultures tracing to Confucian ideology. Distinctive elements of Confucian ideology include rule of man versus rule of law, distinctive characteristics of good public officials, the nature of moral conventions and practices in governing, the importance of education and merit for public officials, how good officials should deal with those in political power, the logic of civil reciprocity, and the nature of order in society. Following descriptions of each of these elements of Confucian moral justification for bureaucracy, the article closes with a comparison of Western and East Asian approaches to the moral justification for bureaucracy.

The authors have selected a few Nemerov poems they judge to be "public"--poems that will interest persons in public affairs-government, politics, and public administration.

Gloria Flora’s high-profile resignation from the U.S. Forest Service in November 1999 has been grist for the mill of those on both sides of the debate over the appropriate management of public land...

Almost all U.S. cities are established by state charter as either mayor-council or council-manager cities. For decades, these two legal-statutory categories have been used by researchers as dichotomous variables in descriptions of city government form and in statistical equations. This study indicates that the mayor-council and council-manager categories, although legally based, mask several important empirical characteristics of U.S. city government. Using a large data set, the authors indicate that the structures of U.S. cities are surprisingly dynamic. Cities tend to change their structures incrementally. Over time, cities with mayor-council statutory platforms will incrementally adapt many of the characteristics of council-manager form cities to improve their management and productivity capabilities. Over time, cities with council-manager statutory platforms will adopt features of mayor-council form cities to increase their political responsiveness, leadership, and accounting capabilities. Because each of the two legal forms of cities adopts primary features of the other, these cities now constitute a third form of the U.S. city—the adapted city.