Reflections of a "Pracademic" on the Logic of Politics and Administration

Interaction Frequency and Quality as Two Dimensions of Complementarity: An Empirical Examination of Some Contingency Variables

“…Being representative of a ward might force council members to pursue more particularistic policies so as to increase their own visibilities in public and garner constituent support (e.g., Hansen and Ejersbo 2002). This dynamic, in turn, might provoke conflict with the professional city managers who tend to have a broader, longer-term, and more holistic perspective on policy problems (e.g., Nalbandian 1994). In this research, council diversity was measured as a ratio of council size to the number of members elected at-large.…”

“…Public administration scholars consider professionalism as supportive of political responsiveness as a value (e.g., Streib 1992;Rourke 1992;Aberbach 1994;West 2005). Equally important is that elected officials must respect administrative authority and competence (Fleischmann 1989;Nalbandian 1994;Wolf 1999;Rourke 1992;West 2005).…”

“…In unstable environments, however, problems often are more complicated, and there are only a few tried-and-successful types of solutions. Dynamic and complex environments may increase interaction frequency between elected officials and public administrators, yet the quality of the interaction might decline as conflict becomes rule rather than exception (Nalbandian 1994;French 2005). A large part of the research in local government considered size of the city as an important variable.…”

“…Such knowledge may guide a city manager in making the right decisions in defining the parameters of politics, policy, administration, and management, determining what is and is not doable, choosing the best possible courses of action in differing circumstances and managing occasional conflicts with elected officials, and thus, increasing the quality of interactions (e.g., Carrel 1962;Nalbandian 1994;Hanbury et al 2004). Crewson and Fisher (1997), among others, state interacting with differing political environments affect city managers' knowledge and skills positively.…”

Politics and Public Service Human Resource Management Systems in Malawi

“…In a sense, the interaction school seeks a middle ground between the separation and political schools. The interaction school acknowledges the differences between politics and administration in a number of ways such as logical and psychological differences between politics and administration, or dissimilarities in the perspectives, values, and formal positions of elected and administrative officials (Waldo, 1980;Nalbandian, 1994, Svara, 2001. Yet, what makes the interaction school somewhat different from the separation school is its emphasis on ongoing cooperation between elected and administrative officials in the process of policy making.…”