Concepts and Cases
This title offers a unique and highly regarded framework in which conceptual readings are paired with contemporary case studies that reflect real-world examples of administrative work, as well as new thinking and developments in the field.
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: CONCEPTS AND CASES offers a unique and highly regarded framework in which conceptual readings are paired with contemporary case studies that reflect real-world examples of administrative work, as well as new thinking and developments in the field. Case studies and examples cover topics such as the Columbia space shuttle disaster, the shootings at Columbine High School, and the war in Iraq--making it easy to engage students in the readings.
In the arena of public-administration scholarship, one of the most prominent performers is Dwight Waldo. Such an outstanding position was not given to him; he achieved it by giving his entire career--more than forty years--to the study of institutions and ideas. His prolific writing and lecturing took him to six continents but often put him in the controversial position of steadfast neutrality when volatile issues dramatically polarized his colleagues. This book, which consists of transcribed interviews with Waldo plus separate analyses and comments by the authors and by Waldo, was written by two of his former students. Brown and Stillman's informal conversations with their mentor give new perspective to the events and forces that shaped public administration in the post-World War II era. Being open to new concepts, refusing to embrace academic partisanship, and "generalizing" his studies in order to view public administration as a whole in an era of specialization make Waldo an almost unclassifiable academic. He is known for critiquing and recording events that have shaped public administration, and his favorite topics range from traditional views to emerging trends in mid-twentieth-century public administration.