Comparative Public Administration

Comparative Public Administration 2nd edition provides a clear introduction to the contemporary system of public administration and management in a number of significant countries. This text examines, country-by-country, the extent to which new public management, politicians and public opinion can influence bureaucracies in various countries; in addition, it explores the role of public administration systems within the wider political systems and democratic frameworks of their states.

The new edition revises and updates all of the original country studies and adds three more chapters on Poland, India and China. Each chapter is written to a common framework which makes comparison easier and covers the following issues:

• Political culture
• The constitutional framework
• The civil service
• Central government agencies
• Federal and local government
• Financing the system
• Coordinating the system
• Managing the system
• Accountability, secrecy and openness
• Democracy and the administrative system
• Further developments and issues with the system

A wide number of countries are covered, including: the United States, the European Union, China, France, UK, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, India and Poland.

This textbook is essential reading for students of comparative public administration.

J. A. Chandler is an emeritus professor of local governance at Sheffield Hallam University and author of several books on local government and public policy including Explaining Public Policy (Routledge, 2011), Explaining Local Government (Manchester University Press, 2007). He has also edited Local Government in Liberal Democracies (1993) published by Routledge and The Citizen’s Charter (Dartmouth 1996).