Bezes, Philippe

SPIRE - Sciences Po Institutional REpository

Philippe Bezes
Handbook of Public Administration, B. Guy Peters and Jon Pierre (eds), London:
Sage Publications, 2003.
This imposing work (640 two-column pages), co-edited by two eminent specialists in
the field of public administration, B. Guy Peters and Jon Pierre, professors in the
departments of political science in the Universities of Pittsburgh in the United States
and Gothenburg in Sweden, has many claims to becoming a ‘Bible’ for all those —
researchers, university people, students and practitioners — who are interested in
public administrations, in how they function and how they change. Belonging to the
well-established publishing category of the ‘handbook’, it offers a multiplicity of
entries and summary chapters covering a vast range of questions, thematic areas and
works relating to the ‘administrative phenomenon’. Several of the options chosen
confer unity on the project and give it its scholarly interest, ensuring that it will
become an indispensable instrument of research, discussion and understanding. The
approach adopted for the enterprise is first of all particularly careful in the choice of
contributors and in the general direction taken: under the supervision of the two edi-
tors and of a prestigious committee of university people of international repute not
involved in the drafting of the work, 14 thematic sections were defined, each made
the responsibility of a specialist who introduces and presents the themes and contri-
butions. All in all, some 68 writers are included in the project, accounting for 49 chap-
ters and 15 introductory presentations, all of them university people, whether of long
standing or in the making, coming from the United States, Canada, the antipodes
(New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong) and ten European countries (Belgium, France,
the Netherlands, Great Britain, Norway, Greece, Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Germany). It
is therefore an international project and a blend, not only of intellectual traditions, but
also of disciplines and approaches: the sweep of research brought together under
the global title of ‘public administration’ includes political scientists (the majority), legal
scholars, sociologists and specialists in ‘public management’.
As in the case of all summary and encyclopaedic works, the Handbook makes
choices and proposes its own cartography of the vast academic field of studies on
public administration. In so doing, the co-directors have chosen to account for the
double dimension, theoretical and practical, of the issues raised by public administra-
tion and claim to have done so by means of precise, scholarly and well referenced
discussions. The 14 sections take three structural directions in turn:
 theoretical discussion of the analysis methods of administrative phenomena
(organization theories, the historic perspective, the comparative approach, formal
approaches arising out of rational choice, public policies, etc.);
 long-established and more recent problem areas in issues concerning
bureaucracies (relations between the public administration and the political
world or between the administration and society; the new accountability of civil
servants; the implementation powers of the public service; administrative reform
in the English-speaking countries and in Western Europe, but also in the
developing and transitional countries, in Eastern Europe and in the countries of
Asia, Africa and South America);
 finally, thematic areas linked to the operational activities and functions of public
administrations (administrative law and legality, the management of human
resources, public finances and the budget, issues connected with
intergovernmental coordination).
The discussions presented throughout the work are homogenous and give pride
of place, in describing the public administration, to the approaches of the social 
sciences and their analytical and empirical foundations. The work does not in any 
way obscure the more managerial and prescriptive perspectives, which are given in
several chapters of the functional sections, but these contributions do not constitute
the dominant philosophy of the Handbook. Rather than focusing on a vision of 
‘public administration’ as a practical art centred on the issue of efficiency, the editors 
have chosen to defend a concept of research on public administration which re-
establishes the wealth of a particularly dynamic academic field. The classical works
are represented but the volume is first and foremost concerned with the more recent
contributions.
It is obviously not possible, within the limited framework of this account, to
describe the multiplicity of the contributions. We will therefore concentrate on certain
very clear lines of inquiry which are present throughout the work and lend it much of
its interest.
The first great merit of the Handbook of Public Administration is to bear witness
to the wealth of perspectives and issues arising from the research and discussion
concerning public administrations. Historically, from the 1960s, policy analysis as a
discipline has competed with ‘public administration’ in the English-speaking world.
This success of the analysis of public policies contributed for some time to marginal-
izing theoretical and empirical analyses of the functions and issues involved in public
administration, of the various groups of civil servants, of routine administrative activi-
ties and the relation between bureaucracies and democratic mechanisms. Reversing
this direction, the Handbook perfectly illustrates the recovery of a certain ‘political 
science of public administration’, supported by theoretical currents which promote
the development of new forms of inquiry. Thus, sociological neo-institutionalism (see
the contributions of Jean-Claude Thoenig and those of Dionyssis G. Dimitrakopoulos
and Argyris G. Passas), historical neo-institutionalism (Martin Lodge), the formal 
theories arising out of rational choice (agency or transaction costs theories, whether
in Jack H. Knott and Thomas H. Hammond or Mark Halleberg), interactionist sociology
and the theories of citizenship (see the chapters on the ‘street-level bureaucrat’ by
Steven Rathgeb Smith or Marcia K. Meyers and Susan Vorsanger), the research into
social capital (Bo Rothstein), the comparative perspectives (the section directed by
Edward C. Page with a summary by Marleen Brans) or historical perspectives (Jos C.N.
Raadschelders) have considerably revitalized and enriched formulations in the admin-
istrative problem area. From this point of view, the Handbook is above all a good 
illustration of theoretical and methodological inventiveness in this field of research.
Going beyond this overview of the approaches, the two editors re-establish the
cardinal character of the issues involved in administration and insist, in the introduc-
tion, on the necessity of setting the study of public administrations back at the centre
of discussions on the activities of government. This requirement — setting studies 
on public administration back into a more general discussion of politics — is largely
sustained throughout the work. In their respective chapters, Morten Egeberg, Martin
Lodge and Gary C. Bryner emphasize the essential influence of the institutionalized
structures of national civil services in the forming and results of public policies.
Specifically, John L. Mikesell, for example, discusses the merits of the various possible
forms of taxation authority and their effects in terms of efficiency and legitimacy. It is
a way of emphasizing how, without the civil service, the activity of the government 
is fragile and uncertain, but also of describing the different forms of influence the
service has on politics (see the section directed by Nicole de Montricher). In their
respective contributions and with very different perspectives, John Halligan, Robert
Gregory and Luc Rouban analyse the renewal of the ‘political-leadership’ imperatives
of bureaucracies in the western democracies, as they manifest themselves in differ-
ent forms: transformations in the leadership, methods of monitoring and account-
ability and the forms of the politicizing of senior civil service positions by elected
executives. Gregory examines, for example, the dilemmas and ambiguities of the
demands for the accountability of senior civil servants in the name of democracy and
the New Governance. Elsewhere, the formal conceptualizations of writers (Knott and
Hammond) who see the control of the administration in terms of ‘agent–principal’
transactions between the bureaucracies and the multiple democratic institutions
(Parliament, executive, representatives of special interest groups, etc.) also make 
it possible to set the study of the administration back into the research on political
theory. The new discussions of accountability (the section directed by Paul G.
Thomas) or those, more long-standing, of representative bureaucracy (chapter by
Lois R. Wise) confirm this point. The new forms of the ‘governance’ of public action
and the reconstructed roles played in them by the public authorities are also well 
illustrated in the section by Martin Painter on the transformation of relations between
the central and local players, in the chapter by Dimitrakopoulos and Passas on the
growing influence of supra- and transnational organizations and in the contribution
of Pierre Lascoumes and Patrick Le Galès on the new interactions between bureau-
cracies and interest groups. The same desire to relate technical questions to the
issues involved in the contemporary arts of government informs Jorgen Gronnegaard
Christensen’s contribution on the, at first view, austere subject of the remuneration of
the public governing class. While emphasizing the multiplicity of the forms of material
or symbolic remuneration (salaries, pensions, allowances, material advantages, hold-
ing of two or more offices, etc.), he demonstrates the importance of a discussion 
of political theory and offers a fascinating stylization of the issues involved in salary
policies and the theories interpreting them. In particular he discusses, both theoreti-
cally and empirically, the hypothesis taken from Tocqueville of a process of degrada-
tion of the remuneration of the western politico-administrative élites, the effect of
political competition in the democratic systems. All in all, the issues involved in the
interrelation between administration and government are extensively set forth in the
Handbook.
The societal dimension of bureaucracies also pervades the work. The section by
Soren C. Winter on implementation shows clearly, for example, how the renewal 
of studies on Implementation largely rests on a vision of the subject which is now
integrated and can analyse more subtly and systematically the role of the official in
the field — the ‘street-level bureaucrat’ — and also those of social groups, firms and 
citizens benefiting from public policies and interacting with the administration. In their
contributions, Steven Rathgeb Smith and Marcia K. Meyers and Susan Vorsanger
underline the wealth of recent research carried out in the wake of the work of
Michael Lipsky on the policy-making of the street-level bureaucrats and on their
growing social role in the treatment of the beneficiaries of the policies of the Welfare
State. The issues of citizenship, participation and justice now constitute serious areas
of inquiry in administrative studies, usefully shedding light on the classical perspec-
tives which only consider the effectiveness and efficiency of governmental action.
From a different angle, and on the basis of a discussion of the legitimacy of public
administrations, Bo Rothstein resumes discussion of the theories of social capital, 
suggesting the importance of a causal mechanism according to which the confidence
of individuals in other people and in society (social trust) would depend on the 
quality and non-corruption of the administrative institutions. At a more general level,
this pronounced structuring of government services by the ‘societies’ and cultures
within which they are to be found also characterizes the different chapters devoted
to the developing and transitional countries (Africa, Asia, Latin America, Central
Europe, Eastern Europe, the post-communist countries, etc.) and those, more histori-
cal, on the western administrations. They make it possible, among other things, to
measure the interdependence of the phenomena and, in particular, the multiple
forms and degrees of differentiation of the administrative systems in relating to social
functions. The cardinal role of intermediation played by the administrations in society,
between the elected political authorities, local government, interest groups, social
groups, tax-paying users and citizens is clearly underlined.
Finally the Handbook offers numerous analyses of the most recent transforma-
tions of the administrative systems. It particularly notes the phenomenon of the 
‘managerialisation of the state’, characterized by the increasing importance of 
budgetary constraints and the development of multiple methods of control based on
the production and processing of information through the development of quantita-
tive management instruments and indicators. Along with the two vast sections
devoted to the management of human resources (Patricia W. Ingraham) and the
financial and budgetary dimensions of the public administration (Frans K.M. van
Nispen), there are several chapters concerning performance issues in the public 
sector (Carolyn J. Heinrich), electronic government (Helen Margetts) and, more 
widely, administrative reforms (Theo A.J. Toonen’s section). Sometimes analytical and
scholarly, sometimes managerial and prescriptive, the contributions make it possible,
whatever the case, to highlight large-scale contemporary changes linked to the 
putting in place of new financing, budgeting, management and monitoring arrange-
ments. Clearly, economic and financial pressures, as well as the increasing influence
of techniques used in the private sector are leading to a re-examination of budgetary
procedures (Hilton and Joyce, and Kok) in the light of mechanisms which enhance
the transparency of public processes and financial information, the measurement of
performances and monitoring by means of audits. Influenced by the same historic
movement of economic rationalization, the management of human resources is also
evolving towards systems of remuneration according to performance (Michael Katula
and James L. Perry), towards contractualization of employment and job insecurity and
new individual forms of activity assessment (Sally Coleman Selden), or towards 
professional relations marked by the decentralization of salary negotiations (James R.
Thompson). In these two operational areas, one can regret the insufficient presence
of more sociological and critical perspectives, analysing the forms of this ‘managerial-
isation’ of politics and the civil service, clearly richer and more complex than the 
contributions coming from the public management sector would give one to under-
stand. An illuminating counter example is that of the chapter by Helen Margetts on
the coming of an electronic government, a subtle discussion of the very contempo-
rary issues of the rationalization, control and efficiency of the administration in rela-
tion to the development of the new information and communication technologies.
As a general project the Handbook obviously cannot satisfy on all points as it is in
its very construction an impossible exercise. With regard to content, for example, one
could regret the absence of a section, or at least a chapter, devoted to the sociology
of public officials, from the senior civil servant to the street-level bureaucrat. The
advantage of more sociographic approaches comparing the training, orbits, positions
and conceptions of roles is missing in a group work which sets itself the task of 
covering the different facets of the administrative phenomenon. One could also
regret the little attention given to the analysis of administrative activities aimed at the
‘shaping’ of government action, from the ‘functional politicising’ of senior civil servants
to the drafting of legal material by middle-ranking officials. By devoting a section to
‘implementation’, the Handbook gives priority to the traditional instrumental function
to the detriment of more pro-active roles of bureaucracies in the process of govern-
ment. In addition, if the editorial choices have in the majority of cases a solid scholarly
basis, one could have certain reservations about some chapters in the operational
sections (Human Resources Management, Budget), which are insufficiently critical as
they are too directly the vehicles of prescriptive managerial viewpoints. With regard
to regrets concerning the form of the work, one could mention the overall organiza-
tion of the sections, the logic and sequence of which are difficult to understand, and
the overlapping between the contributions of different sections. The reverse side of
the independence accorded to the section directors is that several chapters could in
fact by moved to other sections, corresponding better to the themes they discuss.
The Handbook will also be assessed in accordance with the yardstick of use. While
the thematic index is well designed, one could regret the absence of entries by 
country, which would facilitate comparisons between the analyses of national 
administrative systems dispersed throughout the work.
But in the end, these reservations are of no account in view of the scope of an
enterprise offering so wide a panorama of analyses, perspectives and references
concerning public administration. Even if the Anglo-American paradigms and refer-
ents clearly appear to dominate, the editorial choice and the diversity of the con-
tributors ensure that readers will have a veritable mine of information at their
disposal, intended no doubt more for researchers and students interested in public
administration than for practitioners in search of ready-made solutions. The Hand-
book represents the state of the art in its most up-dated form and is thus indispens-
able for research on bureaucracies.


Critical book review

http://spire.sciencespo.fr/hdl:/2441/2lb1evv3h084ir735r8iqn4vs7/resources/2004-bezes-handbook-of-public-administration-vauteur.pdf

Critical book review

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

SPIRE - Sciences Po Institutional REpository