Content and objectives
Public administrations are not just organisations delivering well-defined products and services to customers. Studying public administrations means studying their role in societies and in the state, and their relationship to citizens and politicians. This course will introduce you to some key discussions in current public administration. Four main themes will be addressed in four lectures:

• Bureaucracy and its critics
• Political-administrative relations
• Representative bureaucracy
• Street-level bureaucrats and administrative discretion

By the end of this course, students:

• understand the complex relationship between politicians and bureaucracies
• are able to assess the role of the civil servant in an efficient and democratic administration
• can discuss the implications of the structure and composition of public organisations on the interactions between administrations and citizens

Literature

Bureaucracy and its critics

• Wilson, W. (1887). The study of administration. Political science quarterly, 2(2), 197-222.
• Weber, M. ‘Bureaucracy’
• Olsen, J. P. (2006) ‘Maybe it is time to rediscover bureaucracy?’ Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 16 (1): 1-24
• Schofield, J. (2001) ‘The old ways are the best? The durability and usefulness of bureaucracy in public sector management’ Organization 8 (1): 77-96

Political-administrative relations

• Parrado Diez, S. (2008). The senior civil service in national governments of OECD countries. Paris: OECD. (executive summary only, pp1-14)
• Svara, J. (2006). Introduction: Politicians and Administrators in the Political Process: A Review of Themes and Issues in the Literature. International Journal of Public Administration, 29, 953-976.

Representative bureaucracy

• Lim, H.-H. (2006). Representative Bureaucracy: Rethinking Substantive Effects and Active Representation. Public Administration Review, 66, 193-204.

Street-level bureaucrats and administrative discretion

• Lipsky, M. (1980). Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services, New York, Russell Sage Foundation. Chapters 1 (the critical role of street-level bureaucrats) and 2. (Street-level bureaucrats as policy makers), pp. 3-25.