How Traditional Are the American, French and German Traditions of Public Administration? A Research Agenda

Abstract

Consistent with the notion of tradition, public administration scholars usually interpret and compare administrative developments in the US, France, and Germany as inheritance, assuming continuity. However, administrative traditions have thus far not been an object of systematic research. The present research agenda aims to address this research gap by introducing the transfer‐of‐ideas approach as a means to examine the empirical substance of national traditions. We claim that for current research, the benefits of this approach are twofold. First, the transfer‐of‐ideas approach contributes to comparative public administration since it reveals in how far intellectual traditions are hybrid instead of distinctively American, French or German developments. Second, the approach may help to address the polysemous meanings of and terminological difficulties within administrative concepts that prevail in Public Administration on both sides of the Atlantic.

Are Some Countries More Prone to Pressure Evaluators Than Others? Comparing Findings From the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland

“…As said earlier, due to the UK study focusing on commissioned research for government, we cannot interpret the high-pressure experience of the British researchers relative to that of the AEA, DeGEval, and SEVAL members. While the United States and Switzerland both stand for a liberal state tradition manifested in limited government structures, Germany is a main representative of the European continental strong state tradition (Jann, 2003; Sager, Rosser, Hurni, & Mavrot, 2012). This tradition also impacts the role of scientific advice on decision-making.…”

Politicization, Bureaucratic Legalism, and Innovative Attitudes in the Public Sector

“…While the managerial approach emphasizes the role of the administrator as a manager and highlights values such as “the maximization of effectiveness, efficiency, and economy,” the legal approach stresses administrators providing “procedural safeguards” (Meyer et al , 865) or “identification of the legal foundations of public actions and implementation of that law” (Painter and Peters , 8). Third, while the dominant approach to administrative training in the United States relies on a management and social science perspective (Sager et al ), legal training plays a central role in continental Europe (Stillman ). For example, German public administration has a clear preference for job candidates with a law degree (Veit and Scholz ).…”

Exploring the co-ordination of economic regulation

“…The four countries in which we assess co-ordination provisions -Denmark, Germany, Italy and the UK -represent the four different 'administrative traditions' distinguished in established democracies: the Scandinavian, Germanic, Napoleonic and Anglo-American traditions (Painter and Peters 2010;Sager et al 2012). Tradition-based accounts suggest that long-standing features of the administration -including legal entrenchment, civil service career structures and the politics -administration nexus -play an important role in the policy process (Knill 2001;Page 1995).…”