Running the constitution : framing public administration
By: CHRISTENSEN, Robert K
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ArticlePublisher: Armonk, NY : M.E. Sharpe, June 2009Public Performance & Management Review 32, 4, p. 604-609Abstract: As public administration develops in the twenty-first century, we continue to grapple with century-old questions that are fundamental to the field of study and practice of public management. How does the administrative function relate to the political function? How does a public administrator satisfy conflicting managerial and legal imperatives? In this short essay, I argue that Wilson's 1887 essay holds an unrealized vision for public administration. The unrest over some of public administration's fundamental questions can be partly remedied by framing public administration in its functional home: the execution of public law. I use an institutional framework to illustrate my argument and underscore the conceptual arrangement of politics, law, and management that I read in Wilson's vision.
As public administration develops in the twenty-first century, we continue to grapple with century-old questions that are fundamental to the field of study and practice of public management. How does the administrative function relate to the political function? How does a public administrator satisfy conflicting managerial and legal imperatives? In this short essay, I argue that Wilson's 1887 essay holds an unrealized vision for public administration. The unrest over some of public administration's fundamental questions can be partly remedied by framing public administration in its functional home: the execution of public law. I use an institutional framework to illustrate my argument and underscore the conceptual arrangement of politics, law, and management that I read in Wilson's vision.
constitution, institutional framework, public administration, public law
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