What is Public Administration? What are the dominant theoretical and conceptual issues in the study of public administration? How do these reflect on patterns of governance and bureaucratic management of the state? What is unique to public administration in India? This reader brings together significant articles on the theory and practice of public administration. It outlines the historical processes associated with the growth of public administration as a discipline, and goes on to reflect on contemporary administrative perspectives and experiences.The reader discusses the major theoretical premises of the discipline and their efficacy in the practical sphere of governance, as also the prevalent structures of administration within specific political, social, and cultural roots. It elucidates: Various paradigms in bureaucratic operations and practices Theoretical advances since Max Weber’s ideal type of bureaucracy. Riggs’ administrative ecology. The Marxist concept of bureaucracy The book further focuses on changes brought about by globalization in governance including privatization and structural adjustment, and discusses these changes in the context of the markedly neo-liberal agenda of the modern state. The volume is unique in devoting an entire section to the Indian experience in administration that traces the evolution of administrative practices from colonial to contemporary times. In addition, it discusses the Weberian tendencies in the Indian bureaucracy, the relationship between governance and society, as also human rights and administration.
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