Comparing public bureaucracies : problems of theory and method /
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| Author / Creator: | Peters, B. Guy. |
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| Imprint: | Tuscaloosa, Ala. : University of Alabama Press, ©1988. |
| Description: | 1 online resource (xv, 217 pages) |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Book collections on Project MUSE. UPCC book collections on Project MUSE. Archive Political Science and Policy Studies Foundation. |
| Subject: | |
| Format: | E-Resource Book |
| URL for this record: | http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11106831 |
| Summary: | <p>The comparative study of public policy once promised to make major contributions to our understanding of government. Much of that promise now appears unfulfilled. What accounts for this decline in intellectual fortunes and change in intellectual fashion? "Comparing Public Bureaucracies" seeks to understand why. One of the principal answers is that there is no readily accepted and dependent variable that would allow comparative public administration to conform to the usual canons of social research. In contrast, comparative public policy has a ready-made dependent variable in public expenditure.Peters discusses four possible dependent variables for comparative public administration. The first is "personnel"--the number and type of people who work for government. Second, the number and type of "organizations" that form government can suggest a great deal about the structure of government. Third, the "behavior" of members is obviously important for understanding what actually happens in government--such as the extents to which bureaucracies approximate the budget-maximizing behavior posited by economists. Ginally, the relative "power" of civil servants in the policymaking process is a major factor in institutional politics in contemporary industrial societies. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xv, 217 pages) |
| Format: | Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 190-208) and index. |
| ISBN: | 0585141010 9780585141015 9780817303686 0817303685 9780817303846 0817303847 9780817383947 0817383948 |