Governance, Structure, and Democracy: Luther Gulick and the Future of Public Administration

Abstract

Governance, Structure, and Democracy: Luther Gulick and the Future of Public Administration Luther Gulick was both an academic and a reformer. In the latter role, he thought seriously about what the future of public administration might look like. Th is essay examines his work as a lens through which to view the future of public administration in 2020. Gulick suggests that public administration needs a governance orientation to link scholarship with the realities of practice, a recognition of the bias of structures, a stress on the informal elements of organization, additional research on almost every question, a recognition of the importance of ethics, a stress on the importance of context, and a fundamental appreciation of the role that public management plays in fostering democracy.

Organizing Transmission Belts: The Effect of Organizational Design on Interest Group Access to EU Policy‐making

“…Public organization theory posits that organizational structure affects how ideas and preferences are being channeled through organizations via formal units and consequently, formal decision‐making junctures in the organizational hierarchy ( cf . Meier, ). More specifically, organizational structures are argued to affect policy outcomes by how they structure both decision‐making processes and the channeling of ideas (Hammond, ), or influence the translation of knowledge from source organizations to recipient organizations (Røvik, ).…”

Why Strong Coordination at One Level of Government Is Incompatible With Strong Coordination Across Levels (And How to Live With It): The Case of the European Union

“…A multitude of factors might be relevant in this respect. Rather, the argument is that organizational factors (independent variables) might intervene in coordination processes and create a systematic bias, thus making some process characteristics and outputs more likely than others (dependent variables) (Gulick ; Simon ; March and Olsen , ; Meier ). Organizational factors include organization structure, demography, culture and location.…”

Should Public Administration Be Internationalized

“…Thus, the strategy of internationalizing public administration should be adopted and promoted by all countries in the world, from academic to professional areas and from universities to governments. More research needs to be conducted on every issue of public administration, from micro level like the process of production to macro level like the governance issues (Gulick as cited in Meier, 2010). Both foreign and American students of public administration should be provided with knowledge and experiences to engage in the future internationalization process of public administration.…”