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The article tackles the question, how to provide students with a comparative orientation to public administration. We eschew the older tradition of comparing major systems such British parliamentary system or French bureaucratic approaches to organizations' structure. Rather, we seek to understand public administration in countries with different cultures, histories, and political regimes by focusing on international development. Our students are drawn from the Master of Public Administration degree program and the Master of International Affairs degree program. What unites them is an interest in international affairs and the desire to work internationally; international students take what they learn and apply it in their home countries. We ground the course on a model of international development with a strong focus on development in governance. We spend the first third of the class creating a development lens for understanding global practices in public management in which they use what they learned in the first part of the course to analyze a range of public management issues within governmental institutions and/or in working in the nongovernmental organizations and intergovernmental organization sectors. We use detailed case studies drawn from several case data banks to apply some of the core concepts of public administration such as leadership, stakeholder analysis, complexity, and implementation to development challenges such as fiscal issues, poverty alleviation, interorganizational collaboration, and human rights. We do this with a range of in-class exercises and assignments that students do out of class. One goal we have is to provide students with knowledge and skills to enhance their ability to work internationally since many have gone on to work for donor and various implementing organizations in international development. We believe that this is a reasonable measure of success of the approach we have taken to comparative public administration.

The academic/practitioner divide is real. Having observed and participated in this divide over four decades it seems as if the same issues get repeated over and over. This paper offers one approach that was used several years ago. The "case" is a collaboration between a recently hired Professor of Practice and the author, a full professor with only limited government experience. There were two main challenges in the relationship. The diplomatic had to adjust to a different organizational culture and the academic had to adjust to contact he wasn't familiar with. A new elective course was developed called, Drugs, Crime, and Terrorism. I describe this process and draw lessons about the value of this type of experience for faculty, practitioners, and professional education.

Introducing a new concept, skill or method to public affairs students always involves a decision about the most effective pedagogical approach that will achieve the instructor's objectives. In public affairs, education concepts are often abstract, complex and contested. One of the approaches that can be effective in introducing public affairs concepts is playfulness--simple anecdotes, mini, one page composite cases and scenarios and even "tricks" that can all be used to motivate a given subject. One technique is to introduce concepts with brief vignettes that have just enough detail to allow students to practice the concepts and apply skills that cut across the management and policy curriculum. Vignettes offer the immediate advantage of quick reflection and decision which can then be followed with deeper investigation and analysis. Students can practice thinking fast and thinking smart. Examples of policy and policy implementation from the author's teaching repertoire are used to illustrate the argument.

Repertoire: (1) a stock of plays, dances, or pieces that a company or a performer knows or is prepared to perform. (2) the whole body of items that are regularly performed. (3) a stock of skills or types of behavior that a person habitually uses. [https://www.google.com/#q=definition+of+repertoire.] Assessing the impact of teaching on student learning is an educational enterprise that has been going on for many years. Less common, however, is the evaluation of the impact of teaching on the instructor. That is, how does increasing teaching experience both in terms of the number of years doing it and the diversity of teaching experiences improve teaching? This is, of course, an empirical question. This paper focuses on one type of teaching experience and its overall contribution to improving instruction in public administration and policy. I draw from experience in short-term, non-degree teaching in executive programs (EEs). These programs are aimed at middle-level or senior government officials and may be as short as one day or as long as four weeks (on rare occasions longer). I show how this type of teaching can improve one's teaching repertoire much like a young professional trombonist (think of Tommy Dorsey in his early 20s) or a fledgling comedian trying to make the big time developing a professional repertoire. One's repertoire is a combination of pedagogical technique and policy and management substance. Since short-term, non-degree teaching in EEs is different from degree-based, semester-length teaching, it presents specific challenges, especially for the novice EE instructor. As the repertoire improves via EE teaching, it is likely to transfer to more conventional graduate-level professional education. Case examples come from Hungary, the USA, China, Macedonia and Singapore.

This article adopts the perspective expounded by Weimer, and Vining and Weimer, that policy analysis requires "craft skills" and, therefore, one of the fundamental objectives of public affairs programs is to prepare graduates for the professional working world by providing opportunities to learn and practice these skills. Second, the article then introduces a method of experiential learning advanced by Weaver which he calls "quasi-cases." The two concepts are then linked through an exposition of a quasi-case--New York City's flirtation with "congestion pricing." The goal of the article is to show that by linking these two ideas, one can enhance experiential learning in the classroom (and outside the classroom) and thereby provide students with the opportunity to practice craft skills in semester length courses in addition to the usual approach of relying on internships and capstone projects to provide public affairs students with opportunities to learn what it means to be professional. The quasi-case of New York City's flirtation with congestion pricing illustrates the following ideas: 1) Economic concepts and tools are necessary but rarely sufficient to understand a policy issue adequately. 2) Policy takes place in a specific intergovernmental context that shapes both process and outcome. Understanding the intergovernmental context is important if one is to appreciate how various political constraints operate in the particular setting.

This article examines transnational dispersion that falls under the rubric of 'capacity building.' Capacity building is a phrase used by development specialists, international donors and foundations to describe myriad efforts to assist developing and transitional countries that seek to improve their governance processes. The article shows how there is no single, unambiguous meaning of the concept. Rather, it is used to describe both wide-scale governance reforms at the national level as well as interventions at the local level aimed at improving performance in specific areas such as public financial management and personnel administration. The argument is applied to Serbia. Keywords: capacity building, fiscal decentralization, world bank, United States agency for international development, Serbia

The concept of co-production (CP) is a key concept highly developed in the public administration literature reflecting the end stage of policy implementation. It is explored through a personal account of struggle and challenges through my two-year experience as a stroke survivor. The paper provides a very personal account of CP and by so doing I hope to shed additional light on the value of CP as a theory with a rich literature and as a valuable construct for practitioners and future public administrator and policy analysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1980, Mayor Edward I. Koch of New York City wrote an article in The Public Interest entitled, 'The Mandate Millstone' (Koch, 1980). In his characteristically blunt style, Mayor Koch [...]

Intractable long-term or chronic refugee communities present serious challenges to common refugee-management strategies. We argue that they are best understood and managed by using adaptive techniques drawn from complexity theory. To illustrate this strategy, we use the refugee communities situated along the Thai–Myanmar border as a case study. The article outlines the key elements of complexity theory, the complexity lens, for use in analysis of the problem. It then applies the complexity lens to the case study: identifying and describing the actors and networks that compose the complex system of the Thai–My refugees (the complex system) and the dynamic developments within that community over time (dynamic development). Based on this analysis, the article utilizes the complexity lens to evaluate the policy options commonly offered for the management of this ongoing refugee situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, international development (also known as Official Development Assistance (ODA)) has been under attack for its lack of effectiveness. Critiques reflect two conceptual challenges, the nature of expert knowledge and the centrality of local ownership of development initiatives, bounded by the practical constraint of how politically controlled resources from bilateral and international donors will be used. This article examines five implementation strategies, including their strengths and weaknesses, keyed to the level of control asserted by the donor agency. We illustrate our argument through a review of legislative strengthening projects, most of which were funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) in the case of one of the models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of best practice has few friends in international development; however, the wholesale rejection of best practice is incorrect. The article first reviews the critique of best practice by describing its four main features and analyses it through a case study of public financial management (PFM) in Afghanistan country using three donor-funded projects that employ a best practice approach. The PFM projects are evaluated based on the four components of the critique. The article concludes with a modest reassessment of the continued salience of best practice in international development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critics of donor-funded democracy promotion claim that these programs are frequently designed to reproduce social and governmental models drawn from developed countries and imposed on the recipient country without regard to local conditions, with experts parachuted in to provide guidance based on international 'best practices.' The critique focuses on first-generation development with a neutral, technical focus, whereas democracy promotion has evolved toward a more politically engaged approach to programming-what we label as second-generation and, more recently, third-generation development practices. We apply this distinction to the area of legislative strengthening (LS) by describing its history from the post-World War II period to the present and provide examples of LS projects to support the argument. The challenge is to combine valuable insights from best practices from decades of experience while adapting them through political engagement with local partners and with bilateral donors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concepts such as lesson-drawing, policy diffusion, policy transfer and, more recently, “isomorphic mimicry” have been used to suggest that, over time, administrative practices, policies and governance systems across countries are converging. Three different sources of data are used to examine the extent of convergence in the roles of legislatures in budget processes. Taken together, there is very limited evidence of convergence despite the efforts of entities such as the International Budget Partnership or and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strengthening the budgetary powers of legislatures through nonpartisan budget offices adds to the capacity-building repertoire of development donors. Budget offices are supposed to provide legislatures with information and analysis independent from the executive. The United States Agency for International Development believes that strengthening the legislature's power of the purse improves governance. We highlight USAID-funded legislative strengthening projects implemented in Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, and Afghanistan to show how these budget offices function. There is a significant potential for these units to assist members of parliament in understanding the budget process, the broad fiscal challenges facing government, and expenditure control and budgetary trade-offs that affect present and future spending. These cases demonstrate the challenges of creating and sustaining a parliamentary budget office. Finally, in an effort to make budget offices effective and sustainable, we outline several key steps that we believe are important both for donors and the legislative bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses Russia’s post-Soviet efforts to reform its public service in order to meet the challenges of social and economic transition and describes both obstacles to the creation of a modern public service and efforts to overcome them. First, the authors provide a snapshot of the public service in Russia since 1991. Second, they describe aspects of the Soviet legacy that have impeded efforts to modernize the public service. Third, they identify some of the traumas of transition experienced in the 1990s that have circumscribed efforts at reform. Finally, the authors identify gaps between the legislation enacted by the Duma and the limited implementation of that legislation to date. The article concludes with an assessment of the current status of public service reform in Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces the articles on poverty, which were published in the April 2005 issue of the "Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis."

The adoption of the civil service system is the most comprehensive reform of the personnel system in the history of the People's Republic of China. The reformers want to establish a highly qualified and professional administrative corps. Elements of the reform include a merit-based performance evaluation system that rewards good employees and punishes poor ones, open and fair competition in recruitment and promotion to assure the quality of government officials, and a system based on law that provides continuity and consistency for government policies. The article summarizes case studies of implementation challenges such as recruitment, examinations, selection and promotion, performance evaluation, training, job rotation and salary systems. The cases provide snapshots of some of the most difficult issues involved in reforming China's civil service. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tensions are embedded in post-communist transitions. Public policies exhibit the disharmony between two different and often competing objectives: (1) developing a fully operational market economy within a democratic context and (2) maintaining social protections in the form of a wide array of social benefits. One challenge for post-communist regimes is the management of this tradeoff. This challenge is observed through an analysis of the administration of emergency social aid in Hungary. The analysis shows that post-communist transitions, as exemplified by the efforts to build local government capacity in Hungary, experience problems of sequencing. In particular, equity decisions are difficult to manage not only because they have their roots in socialist ideology and the policies of the former regime, but also because the increasing number of vulnerable populations makes welfare considerations a politically sensitive task now more than ever before. Meanwhile, the institutional processes needed to manage tensions are fluid and immature. Ultimately the success of the post-communist transition in Hungary (and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe) will be measured by the ability to build institutions that can manage and consolidate political pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thesis of government overload was based on a paradox of governance. While post-1945 economic growth in western democracies appeared to indicate political and economic health, bloated public sectors threatened the loss of political authority. The federal deficit in the United States is interpreted in light of this thesis. Responses to the deficit indicate more "top down" budgeting as a way to avoid, what has been termed by others, "political bankruptcy." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on United States public employee strikes has considered the occurrence and breadth of strikes, but seldom duration, as dimensions of the strike which merit examination. This study considers a much neglected dimension of strikes, duration, which is particularly important to public administrators and unions who become actively involved with resolving such disputes. Factors which theoretically were expected to be associated with the duration of public employee strikes -- the economic expectations of the striking workers, various characteristics of the bargaining environment, and the fiscal condition of the jurisdiction taking the strike -- were identified and considered. Results indicated that one factor in particular, the fiscal constraints of the jurisdiction taking the strike, was significantly associated with longer strikes, indicating that public employee unions may not necessarily be deterred from engaging in protracted strikes because of a precarious fiscal climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though the frequency of penalties imposed and carried out against striking public sector employee unions is small, this fact does not imply that the application of such strictures is haphazardly ap plied or ineffective. This article explores the relationships between the severity of a strike, the characteristics of the collective bargaining situation, and the legal environment as they influence the likelihood that striking public employee unions will be fined and eventually forced to pay the fines imposed upon them. Using data on 590 public sector strikes between 1979 and 1980, a theoretical framework was developed and tested. Among the results were: [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Presents information on the possible impacts of courts on the decision to expand the capacity of jail. Three adverse impacts of remedial law on public management; Implications of jail in United States; Statistics of jail capacity in United States; Factors affecting jail expansion; Impact of expansion on the changes in the capacity in the mid of 1980s; Main empirical results of the study on the jail expansion; Conclusions of the study.

Budget reforms often have two goals that are not necessarily compatible. The primary goal is improving agency performance: the second implicit goal is exercising fiscal restraint to curb expenditure growth. The author describes four different budgetary environments to show that while fiscal restraint seems to be a necessary though not sufficient requirement for successful budget reform, the interaction of reform and fiscal restraint actually may lead to unanticipated behavior among the major participants in the budget process. Reforms that seek to both improve agency performance and encourage fiscal restraint make the budgetary decision-making process unpredictable and more complex. This undesirable situation, from the standpoint of the participants in the process, is overlooked by proponents of budget reform. As a result, the prospects for successful reform, in the author's opinion, are rather dim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One factor that has affected state and local politics since the 1960's is the growth of public sector unionism. Conventional wisdom assumes that the "fist generation" of public unionism has been a major cause of the fiscal problems faced by many state and local governments in the 1970's. State level cross-sectional analysis (1960-71) questions this widely held assumption with respect to the impact of strike activity and collective bargaining legislation on the tax burden across the states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the influence of Jesse Burkhead's views on policy making on the evolution of fiscal reform in Central and Eastern Europe. Illustration of gap between ideals and reality; Case study of the financing of culture in the Czech Republic.

Focuses on local government finance in Hungary. Analysis of the dilemmas caused by the country's transition from socialist to market economy; Local governments in Hungary; Local government finance.

Judicial decisions are one element in the erosion of local government budgetary discretion. For example, litigation concerning constitutional rights forces local government officials to allocate resources toward the rights-based population. While rights-based allocation decisions may narrow the budgetary discretion of public officials, some managers may, paradoxically, be “better-off”—defined as the ability to protect and defend their budgets — when discretion is reduced. This thesis is tested through a case study of jail overcrowding litigation in a county government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents several letters to the editor. Comments on military service as full-time public employment; Discussion on the housing needs in a community; Comments on community development.

The article presents a case study of a county government. A major preoccupation since the 1975 has been a search for strategies and tactics to shrink the size of government. There is a tendency to identify resource scarcity at the state and local level with episodes like California's Proposition 13, and U.S. President Ronald Reagan's budget retrenchment. In addition, the financial woes of New York City, Cleveland, and Detroit reinforce the concept of cutback management as a response to a specific series of events. But fiscal stress also can affect governments gradually. For one thing, public officials may find it easier to justify more radical solutions to financial problems. An illustration comes from Detroit where Mayor Coleman Young's "get tough" stance toward the municipal unions in the wake of the city's financial crisis was facilitated by the need for quick action. The mayor demanded that the unions accept a two-year wage freeze as part of an overall financial plan to bring the city back to solvency.