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Power & Choice, 8/e
W. Phillips Shively, University of Minnesota---Minneapolis
Bureaucracy and the Public Sector

Chapter Outline


I. Introduction--public administration defined

II. Public administration as a political problem

III. Characteristics of good public administration
  1. honest, accurate translation of political leaders' decisions into more specifically designed policies
  2. flexibility in dealing with special cases at the point of delivery(should be obedient but not slavishly obedient)
  3. flexibility not used arbitrarily
  4. feedback of expert advice; active imagination and assertive inquiry on the part of administrators
  5. efficiency

IV. "Bureaucracy": a reform of the last century
  1. features of bureaucracy
    1. members appointed and promoted based on qualifications
    2. positions have special requirements of training and experience
    3. administrative procedures standardized so that little is left to individual biases or passions
    4. clear lines of command established from top to bottom
    5. public administrators shielded from day to day political pressures

V. Bureaucracy versus flexibility

VI. The problem of protected incompetence
  1. difficulties evaluating job performance
  2. requirement that administrators be shielded from political pressure, usually by a system of tenure.

VII. Adjustments to bureaucracy
  1. the office of ombudsman
  2. freedom of information laws
  3. "interference" administration by political leaders
  4. pressure from public opinion
  5. Examples of problems with agencies not under much pressure from public opinion

VIII. Social representativeness of public administration

IX. Conclusion:
  1. Example: The French Bureaucracy
  2. Example: The Saudi Arabian Bureaucracy
  3. Example; Battling the Bureaucracy in Brazil








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