Why public service matters : public managers, public policy, and democracy / Robert F. Durant.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Durant, Robert F., 1949- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civil service--United States.

Civil service.

United States.

Public administration--United States.

Public administration.

Physical Description:

xiv, 290 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Summary:

Why Public Service Matters conveys the importance, purpose, and nobility of a career as a civil servant in the United States. It does so, however, with an unflinching eye on the realpolitik that drives Public Administration in America's "compensatory state" and on the pitfalls of reformers' focus on bureaucratic, rather than democratic, administration. The book links the nation's ability to handle contemporary policy problems with the strategic, tactical, and normative quality of public management. In doing so, it offers newcomers a rare, concise, and accessible overview of the field. Readers will gain an appreciation for the challenges, choices, and opportunities facing public managers as they help advance a sense of common purpose informed by democratic constitutional values in twenty-first century America. Book jacket.

Contents:

Engaging the call to public service

Thinking ecologically

Linking problems, policy, and public management

Aligning structure and strategy

Shooting the political rapids

Informing policy decisions

Linking people to public purposes

Stewarding a nation's treasure

Networking in the shadow of hierarchy

Revitalizing a sense of common purpose.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230341487

0230341489

9780230341494

0230341497

OCLC:

875554644