Public administration and executive politics: perennial questions in changing contexts

The fields of political science and public administration are said to be drifting apart. This article argues that a focus on executive politics - the politics of the executive and of the execution of policies - offers a key avenue to maintain a useful conversation that focuses on perennial questions that are shared across research traditions. This conversation should concentrate on the 'administrative factor' in political life and the 'political factor' in administrative life. This article develops this argument in three steps. First, it defines the field of executive politics. Second, it considers the rationale why a focus on executive politics is pertinent at this particular time. Third, it discusses the challenges that a turn towards executive politics faces. This article concludes by considering the position of British public administration in the field of executive politics

Conclusions and Implications for the Italian Public Sector

This chapter summarizes the contents of the preceding chapters and provides a complete overview of the new training strategies implemented by national schools of Public Administrations. The role of public managers has changed considerably over the years—from a bureaucratic model to New Public Management (NPM) and beyond—and within this framework the competencies and managerial skills required for working in the Public Sector have also changed. In Italy, more than in other countries, the reform of Public Administration has been a distinctive and constant feature of every government since the country was first unified in 1861. Personnel management, evaluation, and HR development systems need to be redesigned in light of the characteristics of the Italian Public Sector and the constant changes which condition and affect it

The European Public Sectors in the Age of Managerialism

During the past 50 years, European public sectors have undergone a profound process of organizational change, where managerial tools and principles from the private sector have permeated through governments and administrations of many countries. A substantial amount of academic literature has now been devoted to public management reforms. Many scholars have associated them with the diffusion of a managerialist ideology. However, the relationship between public management reforms, political ideology, and public expressions of support for these reforms by political parties has been a relatively under-explored topic within the literature and is the gap we address in this article. Using a longitudinal framework of study, our analysis shows how issues surrounding managerialist reforms have evolved across the electoral manifestos of European parties during the past 50 years. Our findings reveal that these reforms have enjoyed a growing political profile over time in many countries within Western and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, we also examine and discuss the differences and similarities of these reforms across countries