Looking at the Politics–administration Dichotomy From the Other Direction: Participant Observation by a State Senator

Administrative Theory & Praxis

2009

The question of how public administration fits into the governance process of a democratic society has been of great concern to scholars and practitioners since the emergence of public administration as an academic field of study in the late 1880s. The politics-administration relationship is considered of pivotal importance, as the issue bears important implications for both the disciplinary identity (and autonomy) and the institutional development of public administration. Despite a voluminous literature on the subject, the question remains unanswered. Scholarly inquiry to this date identifies two major positions, one separation and the other its opposite, political. Unlike prior conceptualizations, this article distills the literature into three major schools of thought as separation, political, and interaction. The article then examines the state of the research that has followed three strands as historical, conceptual, and empirical. The author makes an overall evaluation of the past research and lays out a different approach in studying this important question.

Section: Empirical Approach: a Search For Fit Between Theory And Pracmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Empirical Approach: a Search For Fit Between Theory And Pracmentioning

confidence: 99%

Politics and Administration

Administrative Theory & Praxis

2009

“…This partnership is often contrasted with a strict superior-subordinate relationship (Lee, 2001). In a partnership relationship, the interacting parties respect and trust each other, which result in the satisfaction of the parties and their willingness to work together as a team (e.g., Schmidt & Posner, 1987).…”

Section: Dimension V: Partnershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction Quality in Political-Administrative Relations in the United States: Testing a Multi-Dimensional Model

International Journal of Public Administration

Nank

2012

Complementarity has become the new label to characterize the relations between elected officials and professional public administrators. In response to increasingly complex and challenging problems that face local government officials today, public administration scholars have explored how to improve the efficacy of interactions between elected and appointed officials. To do so, scholars have proposed that characteristics of quality interactions include mutual respect, understanding, communication, and partnership between the two parties. Inadequate empirical research, however, exists to help us understand what interaction quality means. This study fills an important gap in the literature by proposing and testing a multi-dimensional model to explain interaction quality. This study utilizes survey data collected from a nationwide sample of city managers in the United States and employs structural equation modeling.

“…Downloaded by [University of Chicago Library] at 13:34 26 December 2014 DEMIR Much of the conceptual and empirical research in the field revolved around these three values, all being considered fundamental to the functioning of public administration and its legitimacy in a democratic regime. Public administration scholars embracing this diverse set of values portrayed public administrators as competent professionals who follow the principles of modern, scientific management; responsive agents answerable to their political superiors; and spokespeople for citizens to play a bridge role between elected bodies of government and electorate, thus addressing the deficiencies of electoral politics (Kaufman, 1956;Heclo, 1975;Abney & Lauth, 1985;Streib, 1992;Nalbandian, 1999;Selden et al, 1999;Wolf, 1999;Lee, 2001;Terry, 2002;West, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Professionalism, Responsiveness, and Representation: What do They Mean for City Managers?

International Journal of Public Administration

2011

public administrators are expected to be responsive to their elected superiors. As representatives of the community, they are expected to voice the concerns and demands of citizens. Professionalism, responsiveness, and representation all are considered fundamental values that must be reflected in administrative decisions and actions. Despite the importance of these three values for public administration, insufficient empirical research has been done to examine what these values mean for public administrators. That is, the critical question that remains unanswered is: "What activities of public administrators are associated with these three values?" Based on a nationwide survey of city managers, this article identifies critical activities in which public administrators get involved, then reduces these activities into factors (dimensions), and finally examines the correlation of these factors with attitudes of city managers towards professionalism, responsiveness, and representation. The findings of this research help make these three values more concrete by associating them with major policy and political activities of city managers.