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GLOBALIZATION AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

 

By Fred W. Riggs

 

 

ABSTRACT

 

Globalization and public administration are enmeshed in a complex pattern of interdependence that cannot easily be untangled, but the World Wide Web provides a transparent window through which to take a closer look at these linkages.  Indeed, the INTERNET may be viewed both as a cause and consequence of globalization, and as an interactive link to connect it with administrative phenomena.  Both globalization and public administration are so complex and multi-leveled that we would need a book rather than just an encyclopedia article even to sketch out the connections. However, if we focus on one aspect of public administration (the dynamics of bureaucratic performance in independent states) and one perspective on globalization (the images reflected through the Web) we can find a convenient and useful starting point. We may then supplement this foundational information by looking at some of the gaps that need to be filled during the coming years.  

 

CONTENTS

 

  1. INTRODUCTION

 

  1. INTERNATIONAL

 

C.  REGIONAL

 

Europe

Africa

Asia and the Pacific

Middle East

Latin America

North America

 

  1. GAPS TO BE FILLED

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The INTERNET is a powerful manifestation of globalization -- it both results from and contributes to the modern dynamics that, by circular causation, have accelerated the information revolution of our contemporary world system.  By contrast, public administration is an ancient phenomenon but in the world today, it has vastly expanded its scope.  We may visualize the resulting transformations in the form of a triangle.   Visualize a dynamic pyramid of governance, each of whose three sides -- ascending, descending, and horizontal -- represent complementary principles that are incomplete by themselves, but can stabilize modern governments when effectively linked.  To illustrate my point, let me borrow a figure from the paper in which it is fully described: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~fredr/aladin.htm#tri (Use this site if the figure does not appear on your screen)

 

If we adopt a dynamic perspective, we can see the three sides sequentially as they have evolved historically. 

 

In this article I shall focus on how the World Wide Web provides a resource that interested individuals and private groups are using with accelerating speed, all around the globe, both within states and across state boundaries, to create links with others who share their interests and concerns, and also to interact with public officials and elected politicians.  In response, bureaucrats have become more responsibly interactive with individual citizens, viewed them as clients or customers rather than as subjects to be controlled or manipulated. 

 

An important vehicle for such interactions that cuts across all the established public/private boundaries is the WWW -- including all the Web sites and interactive e-mail lists hat it supports.  To illustrate this proposition and to pave the way for more detailed inquiries, this article identifies some of the more important sites and quotes selectively from them.  Readers are encouraged to use the URLs that are identified below to visit these sites. Brief texts will be quoted to illustrate how contemporary states, in the global context, seek both to affect their environment and to use the information it offers.

 

The sequence of sites will proceed from the general to the specific: from the most comprehensive global sites, to regional organizations, and then to those presenting data from independent states.   Virtually all of these sites represent a public/private amalgam insofar as they bring private citizens, scholars and responsible public officials together in conferences, research, publications, and training programs. 

 

In a broader perspective, this is only a start.  Public administration, in response to globalization, now encompasses much more than the management of independent states. Increasingly, sub-states, cities, and local governments are establishing their own Web sites to present themselves and discuss their problems.  Similarly, a growing number of international organizations -- both governmental and non-governmental in membership -- have become active globally and their staffing arrangements also reflect basic principles and problems of public administration.  In growing numbers, they also have their own Web sites.  In the following text, I shall focus first on independent states and their public bureaucracies, but conclude with some observations about the important aspects of public administration that this focus overlooks. 

 

I shall start at the international level and then go to the regional. After each regional view, I will identify some of the states in that region that have their own home pages. We will start with Europe and end with North America.  The other regions are arranged alphabetically between them.  A concluding section looks at some of the non-traditional and non-state public organizations whose administrations also invite attention. 

 

 

INTERNATIONAL

 

 

The impact of globalization may be most visible in global organizations.  Accordingly, let us focus first  The International Institute of Administrative Sciences, the leading association for promoting knowledge of public administration all over the world.  It has a home page at: http://www.iiasiisa.be/iias/aiacc.htm

 

 

Among the various goals of the IIAS, consider this one: to cover the study of the administrative phenomenon in its full context and in all regions of the world with a specific accent on:  the interfaces of administration and development; the innovations required to meet the rapidly changing needs of contemporary public administration;

 

Without assessing its success of failure, the goals of the IIAS are  comprehensive: to view administrative phenomena in their full context in all regions of the world.  This is, indeed, an ambitious goal and it covers, in principle, all the questions I have proposed for this essay.  One way to visualize the scope of the IIAS, consider the themes identified through  a set of international Working Groups sponsored by the IIAS: 

 

·         administration and development;

·         administrative reform and modernisation (innovations - productivity - evaluation);

·         public administration and democracy;

·         women and decision making in the public sector;

·         the history of administration.

These themes are quite broad and one may speculate about the problems they actually focus on.  However, the list serves our purposes by identifying the broad problem areas that an influential group of practitioners and scholars recruited from around the world consider important.  The first focuses on development as a process of economic growth and industrialization that is happening globally as both a cause and consequence of globalization.  The working group has been looking at the administrative implications of this process -- what challenges and opportunities does it pose for states and also for all kinds of non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations?  Unfortunately, the IISA home page does not provide copies of the reports these groups have prepared, but they are no doubt available on paper and readers my secure them on request.

 

The second theme turns from the problems confronting public administrators to the methods they use to organize and implement policies, with special attention on the reforms and innovations that distinguish contemporary administrative practices from older and more traditional ones.  Although democratization is rapidly expanding around the world, many states are dominated by dictators or ruling cabals.  It is appropriate, therefore, to look carefully at the processes of democratization whereby responsibility for public policies devolves (polyarchically) to citizens through their representative institutions, posing problems for public administration that differ fundamentally from those of traditional administration based on hierarchic chains of authority.  Increasingly, therefore, public administration needs to be based on mechanisms that assure the accountability of officials to citizens and those they serve. This theme, therefore, shifts the focus of attention from the hierarchic (right side of the triangle) to the polyarchic (left side).   

 

 Among the radical changes that democratization has brought to the world are many driven by the expanding power of women in a world traditionally dominated by men -- and, one might add, by the proliferation of ethnic diversity and pluralism.  These trends have important administrative implications, both substantively with respect to the policies pursued by public organizations at all levels, and also instrumentally with respect to the degree that women and minorities are included in the work force, not only to give them equal opportunities, but also to take advantage of their special knowledge and values as factors in the implementation of public policies. Such changes raise networking problems symbolized by the bottom side of the triangle: states much not only deal with individuals as atoms in a collectivity, but with groups whose growing power to organize and communicate thrusts them into the vortex of public administration as clients or customers and as officials of the state.  Their distinctive interests need to be taken into consideration by government officials and elected politicians -- and they must also become partners in the processes of public administration. 

 

The final topic, on the history of public administration, may strike readers as the most academic and least relevant of the five topics to contemporary problems.  However, I believe a good sense of history also has practical implications.   Good historical knowledge not only enables us to understand more about the forces and factors that have produced our current problems and opportunities, but it also enhances our ability to visualize the future and to make plans to cope with emerging problems.  When we relate administrative history to the triangle posted above, we can see that during most of the history of civilizations, public administration was oriented only to its hierarchical right-hand side. Modern public administration, under the impact of democratizing forces, added responsibility to citizens (the polyarchic left-side), through elected officials, to the scope of its inquiries. Finally, in the context of contemporary globalization, the bottom side representing social networking and group rights has come forward as the result of globalizing forces.  The IIAS formulation is not explicit on this point, but it may be inferred.

 

The normal focus of attention under all these headings is on the administration of public policies by states.  A major gap in the IIAS agenda, therefore, appears to be the administration of non-state entities at all levels.  An apparent exception may be provided by an IIAS working group on Supranational Administration -- see: http://www.iiasiisa.be/iias/aigrou/aigrthemes.htm#Supranational However, the scope of its work appears to be more expedient than substantive, by which I mean that it focuses on the status and personal problems faced by international officials rather than the challenges they face in doing their work.

 

In close association with the IIAS we find IASIA, The International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration, whose home page can be found at: http://www.iiasiisa.be/schools/aequestce/aequestc.htm By contrast with the IIAS whose members are states, national sections and international organizations, IASIA has individual members and over 170 institutions in 70 countries, plus several international organizations. It activities include the education and training of administrators and managers, and related research, consulting, and publications. It is administered from IIAS headquarters in Brussels.  This means that the new states of the third world and many innovative schools and institutes designed to promote the development of their administrative capabilities are well represented in IASIA. 

 

The expanding scope of public administration under the impact of globalization is well symbolized by the fact that the latest IASIA Congress was held in Beijing, China, from 10-13 July, 2000.  The themes of the conference were Improving Accountability, Efficiency and Responsiveness in Government: ideas and lessons for the new millennium. These themes were spelled out in the program announcement as follows: In looking at and assessing the role of policy makers in government, no subject is of greater concern than that of "accountability". The essence of effective, modern and democratic government is ensuring that policy makers are, in fact, held accountable to the citizenry of their country. Such accountability can take place in many ways and through a variety of institutional mechanisms. The IASIA Conference will enable us to explore several of the complex issues surrounding this topic.  

The past two decades have witnessed the emergence of great demands for "efficiency" within the increasingly complex environment in which public administrators - be they civil servants or political appointees - must carry out their responsibilities. The emerging demands for greater ethnic and gender responsiveness, the development of increasingly stronger civil society organisations and the growing calls for smaller and lower cost government all have placed extraordinary pressures on the contemporary public administrator for more efficient government. This is also an issue which we shall examine during the course of the 2000 IASIA Conference. 

"Responsiveness" is yet another key issue confronting the contemporary public manager. As concerns about integrity, participation and inclusiveness have spread around the world, the citizenry of almost all countries are demanding more responsive government. In many countries new systems have been put in place to encourage the responsiveness of those who deliver public services at the grass-roots level. This too is a topic which we shall examine during the course of the IASIA 2000 Conference.  

 

In other words, the conference was designed to examine a triangle of relationships affecting administrative performance: relations to the organs of representative government involving accountability, hierarchic relations of command and control visualized as matters of efficiency; and interactions with citizens as clients or subjects of public administration, expressed as responsiveness.  These are precisely the three dimensions represented in the Triangle visualized above. Papers presented at the conference are not yet available on the Web, but one may assume that they covered these themes from a wide variety of regional, national, and international perspectives.

 

 

The UNITED NATIONS

 

The United Nations has launched a comprehensive information network for public administration to be known as the UN Public Administration Network (UNPAN).   It has a pyramidal structure based not on individual countries but on regional groups of various kinds: they will be identified, with their Web Sites, below.  They include:

 

The African Civil Services Observatory (OFPA); the African Training and Research Centre in Administration and Development (CAFRAD); the Arab Administration Development Organization (ARADO); Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD); Centro Latinoamericano de Administracion para el Desarrolo (CLAD); Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (EROPA); African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP); The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPACEE); The Luis Eduardo Magalhaes Foundation; the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA); the Greek National Center for Public Administration (EKDD);the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). For details see:  UN Public Administration Network.

 

According to the report of The First Interregional Consultative Meeting of UNPAN,  which was held in March 2000, on the basis of a working paper prepared at a preliminary meeting in June 1999, significant agreements were reached.  They  … detailed the technical and managerial requirements needed to successfully implement an online information and knowledge network for all of these regions.  Although the project does not cover substantive questions, it does illustrate a key feature of globalization: the information revolution supported by modern computer technology and the INTERNET.  A standard package, including hardware and software, will be developed and distributed to selected least developed countries under the support of the UNPAN project. It will be available free of charge to anyone. Further details can be found on the UNPAN main page at: http://www.un.org/esa/governance/unpanpg.html

 

 

This is just one of the projects sponsored by the UN  Division for Public Economics and Public Administration, whose Web Site is at: http://www.un.org/esa/governance/index Among its functions, it assists Governments in improving their public administration and finance systems by facilitating access to information and knowledge, disseminating and customizing best practices and providing an international forum for the exchange of national experiences and technical cooperation among Member States.

 

Information about the organization of government and its administrative problems in all the world's states is not readily available, but a good starting point can be found at: http://www.un.org/esa/national.htm  This is an UN-sponsored page with links for virtually all member states, arranged by regions.  Some are quite fragmentary, but others provide more information than one can readily digest.  See, for example, the page for India that can be found at: http://goidirectory.nic.in/ There is no space here to report on these innumerable sources of information for individual states, but the increasing availability of information about them on the INTERNET is clearly one of the consequences of globalization. 

 

 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

 

There are a large number of international organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, that have a loose global network of overlapping structures with large zones of anarchy where effective governance does not exist.  The Union of International Associations http://www.uia.org provides a marvelous resource for identifying these networks, including an elaborate index of themes or problems addressed by the associations.  Among these themes, one is called Organization Design, http://www.uia.org/uiadocs/aadocndn.htm  It comes close to confronting the administrative problems of international organizations. 

 

Among many papers, a good example of the way this subject has been approached can be found in a report on Future Operation of International Organizations within an Electronic Environment -- framework for reflection on intra- and inter-organizational issues of relevance to both intergovernmental organizations and NGOs, By Anthony Judge, http://www.uia.org/uiadocs/electron.htm. This paper takes up the special problems and opportunities created for international organizations by the growing availability and utilization of electronic communications.  On the whole, however, one has to conclude that the literature on administrative problems of non-governmental organizations, at the national as well as international level, is woefully underdeveloped.   

 

In addition to the extensive data available through the UIA, one may find A map with links to all the UN family of organizations at: http://www.un.org/search/map/.    For inter-governmental organizations associated with the United Nations, see:  http://www.unsystem.org/index5.html. These sites make it easy to find information that identifies a host of international organizations and the substantive problems they seek to solve.  Unfortunately, these sites offer little or no information about the administrative problems they face.  The organizations themselves seem to lack sub-structures designed to investigate their administrative problems, and few if any outside organizations, including universities, have taken up the serious study of international administration at both the governmental and non-governmental levels.  This remains a major gap that needs to be filled. 

 

 

REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

 

v    EUROPE

 

Because of the seminal role of Europeans in the development of modern Public Administration, and the fact that the IIAS is headquartered in Europe, it seems appropriate to open our look at regions in Public Administration by going to EGPA, The European Group of Public Administration. It was established under the auspices of the IIAS in order, among other things, to foster comparative studies and the development of Public Administrative theory within a European perspective.  Its home page can be found at: http://www.iiasiisa.be/egpa/agacc.htm EGPA holds annual conferences, the latest being in Scotland from 30 August to 2 Sept. 2000.  Its main theme was the management of parliaments, and how they relate to the conduct of public administration by the executive agencies of government.  Thus the theme of accountability developed by the IIAS for its Beijing conference was spelled out in more detail in the European context.  The conference announcement contains this statement:

 

Across Europe we are seeing significant parliamentary reform. For example, in the developing, transitional economies of central and Eastern Europe, we see major public administration reforms accompanied by the establishment of democratic parliamentary arrangements. In the country hosting this year's conference, a wave of devolutionary reforms have been introduced, with the establishment of legislative assemblies in Scotland, Wales and, most recently, Northern Ireland. 

 

Two signs of globalization are apparent in this announcement. 

 

First, the collapse of the Soviet system and the rise of democratic regimes have not only brought them within the range of attention of "European" Public Administration, but they have led to a special interest in the role and functions of parliamentary bodies, both with reference to how they are managed, and how they affect the management of public policies.  Note the relevance of the left side of the triangle to this question.

 

A second important point involves the devolution of state powers as manifest in the establishment of legislative assemblies within the U.K. in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  In view of the heightened emphasis on the regional autonomy in response to ethnic nationalism in many countries, this topic is relevant not only in Europe but many other parts of the world also, an aspect symbolized by the bottom side of our triangle.

 

EIPA, The European Institute for Public Administration, supplements EGPA as an institutional resource for Europe. Its home page is at: http://www.eipa.nl/default.htm An illustration of the administrative problems confronting European states can be found in a book sponsored by EIPA: The Intermediate Level of Government in European States: Complexity versus Democracy? Torbjörn Larsson, Koen Nomden and Franck Petiteville (eds). 1999, 418 pages. This book deals with the “intermediate level” of government in 16 European countries. It focuses on the regional governments, regional state administrations and municipal associations. The relationship between these three types of structures is analyzed, as is the relationship between the intermediate level and the central and local levels. In doing so, the study primarily stresses the legal, political, administrative and economic dimensions (taxation, subsidies). 

According to the notice about this book,  The current debate about the intermediate level of government in the different countries is also presented and special attention given to whether European integration has dramatically altered this debate and/or led to any fundamental changes in how the intermediate level is organized and functions in the different countries.  The resulting picture the study gives is of an increasingly complex structure at intermediate level in many countries, as new units are often created – for example new types of public “administrative” and self-governing bodies are emerging in many cases – while, at the same time, old ones remain. Managing the intermediate level today, therefore, seems to be much more a question of governance by networks than a question of hierarchy, control or command: a development sometimes in harmony with ideas and ambitions to improve self-government but also quite frequently in conflict with the basic principles of democracy.

At the EIPA site one may also find entries for the Public Administration institutions that exist in almost every country of Europe. Most of them have their own Web Sites.  Top find the list go to: http://www.eipa.nl/scientific_council/default.htm.  I shall enter a few of the sites here, with some excerpts copied from them, but first, here is a European institution:

 

The Strasbourg  Centre for European Studies -- http://www.cees-europe.fr/E/index.html -- focuses on problems involved in European administrative co-operation. It …organizes  exchanges of civil servants from different countries with the aim of familiarizing them with the structures and working methods encountered in Europe, in order to identify and diffuse the 'good practices' observed in defined areas of public administration..." Gérard Druesna, director of the CEES (May 2000).

 

AUSTRIA

 

The Federal Academy of Public Administration, http://www.vab.ac.at/infoengl/index.html participates in bilateral or multinational projects designed to improve public administrations, support EU integration or strengthen public administration training institutes.  VAB (Verwaltungsakademie des Bundes) International is an integrated department of the Federal Academy of Public Administration.  Among the eight activities it lists, five belong to traditional public administration, but three reflect globalization: 

  1. European Union institutions, general procedures and the history of integration
  2. EU specific policies, i.e. agriculture, environment and the single market
  3. EU public procurement procedures

Thus this national institution for Public Administration explicitly focuses on international issues, especially in Europe.

 

 

DENMARK:

 

 

DSPA International http://www.dspa.dk/ is the international center of the Danish School of Public Administration. It provides Danish and European expertise and training in a wide range of areas of interest to the public sector, especially in those countries which are benefiting from bilateral and multilateral assistance.

 

One of its programs, called Crossing the Boundaries: offers training for women at senior management levels in the public sector -- see http://www.crossing.dk/   It …focuses on strategic leadership in organisations within governmental and political areas, facing the challenges of new public management and growing international responsibilities… It combines new management and organisation development theory with continuous practical work on the very cases of the participants’ home organisations. [It] encourages participants to understand and transcend boundaries like nationality, corporate culture, personality and gender traditions. In a visionary and non-traditional way, it leads to value diversity and gain from it, to find new solutions and to maximise results.

 

FRANCE:

 

The French Institut de Haute Etudes ed Administratiion Publique -- http://www.unil.ch/idheap/ , among its many other activities, offers a course on: Mondialisation, Etat et Politiques publiques.  L'objectif principal du cours est l'analyse du phénomène de la globalisation et de ses répercussions sur la souveraineté de l'Etat ainsi que sur les politiques publiques. La globalisation est un changement à la fois ubiquiste et mal connu.

 

 

Moreover, the  Ecole Nationale d'Administration, http://www.ena.fr/E/index.html, which provides training for senior French civil servant, asserts that its  …curriculum clearly reflects the desire to alert future government managers to the international implications of government action, especially the European Community dimension as well as many other different situations which may confront students during their professional life.

 

FINLAND:

 

HAUS, the Finnish Institute of Public Management, http://www.haus.fi/hauseng.htm ...maintains a domestic network covering ministries, universities, regional and municipal bodies, private organisations and consulting firms. Moreover, it has a well-established and effective network with European colleague institutions, as also with a number of international private training and consulting organisations, companies and law firms.

The activities of HAUS are described in http://www.haus.fi/orgserv.htm as follows  "European and international services meet the needs of both domestic and international customers for development and problem solving in European and international context, be it individual professionals or organisations. One of the most recent service forms is The Centre for European Negotiation and Decision-making (CENAD)  http://www.haus.fi/cenad/index.html  established by HAUS in 1998 which offers high-level negotiation training in Brussels for customers from various countries and European institutions. In addition to whatever services HAUS provides for public administrators in Finland, it also has a strongly international orientation, especially for cooperation within the European Community.

 

GERMANY:

 

For those who read German, the following information will take them to the relevant Bundesakademie für öffentliche Verwaltung im Bundesministerium des Innern 

http://www.bakoev.bund.de/  -- Die Bundesakademie ist die zentrale Fortbildungsinstitution der Bundesregierung. Schwerpunkt ist die zusammenfassende konzeptionelle Planung der Fortbildung sowie die Entwicklung der Koordinierung der Fortbildungsmethodik.

 

GREECE

 

The Greek National Centre of Public Administration  http://ils.ekdd.gr/DefaultEN.asp reports that . "The Civil Service today is full of turbulence and turmoil. Those in leading positions buffeted by unpredictable forces, are under increasing pressure to survive and gain competitive advantage in a context where systems and procedures no longer provide the appropriate answers. Organisational change, human resource management, technological change, the economic recession in the European market and the European integration constitute the key areas for our training intervention." 

 

 

IRELAND:

 

The Institute of Public Administration, http://www.ipa.ie/ reports that, "Nationally, we complement our own services with associate specialists expert in specific skills. As necessary, we draw upon the knowledge and experience of international associates. This mix of national and international experience keeps our own thinking fresh, innovative and up-to-date."

 

 

ITALY:

 

The Graduate School in Public Administration, http://www.sspa.it/inglese.htm is an organ of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office which is responsible for training public managers and senior civil servants.  It offers extensive links for related European and international public administraton organizations at: http://www.sspa.it/links_utili.html

 

 

 

PORTUGAL:

 

The National Institute of Administration http://www.ina.pt/gb/ina.htm supports International Cooperation - bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the Portuguese speaking African countries, European Union countries, Central and Eastern Europe, China and Latin America, involving, in many cases, international organizations (European Commission, World Bank, UNDP, etc.).

 

 

SPAIN:

 

The National Institute of Public Administration  http://www.ina.pt/gb/ina.htm writes that In this new stage of its life, the Institute aims to widen its role on the international stage, especially in Europe and Latinamerica, and to contribute to developing and preparing activity that complements regional and local policy in collaboration with the Regional Governments' training colleges and the various ministerial departments. The INAP also cooperates with international bodies and institutions, in particular with the European Institute of Public Administration in Maastricht and the Latin-American Development Centre (CLAD)

 

SWEDEN:

 

The Swedish Agency for Public Management http://www.statskontoret.se/stkeng.htm asserts that, Among other activities, it engages in:

 

UNITED KINGDOM:

 

 

The UK Civil Service College, http://www.open.gov.uk/college/cschome.htm is part of the recently created Centre for Management and Policy Studies, provides training to people from central and local government and the public sector, both in the UK and internationally. With locations in Sunningdale, London and Edinburgh, the College is one of the largest management development centres in the world.

The College is active internationally. Since 1991, it reports, "when we began working with the African National Congress, the Civil Service College has acquired an enviable reputation in the field of international public service management, in which we work to help create sustainable capacity for the modernisation of public administration.

 

 

REGIONS OUTSIDE EUROPE

 

v     AFRICA:

The leading regional organization is CAFRAD, African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development,  http://www.cafrad.org/ . To learn about its activities and goals, one might view the report on the latest CAFRAD conference, which focused on PUBLIC SERVICE IN AFRICA :  NEW CHALLENGES, PROFESSIONALISM AND ETHICS .  It was held in Abuja, Nigeria) 26 – 29 June, 2000.   El Hussoine Aziz, Minister of Civil Service and Administrative Reforms in the Kingdom of Morocco and Chairman of the Governing Board of CAFRAD, said that  There [is] a need to take concrete steps to regenerate the civil services of Africa to include professionalism and to share experiences on the challenges facing the African continent based on the themes to be presented by eminent African scholars who had been carefully selected for their highly technical quality.  He observed that it had become necessary to reform the African civil services and to learn from the experiences of other countries especially as globalization, competitiveness, technological innovation and information technology have impacted the administrative system of African countries.

  The Minister's statement reflects views that had been formulated in the Rabat Declaration, that had been endorsed by African Ministers of Civil Service, meeting in Rabat, Morocco, December 1998.  They agreed that: RECOGNIZING that given the political and economic changes of recent years, new responsibilities have been placed on the public administration of African countries, including:

 

At the opposite pole from Europe, where virtually every country now has a Web Site for Public Administration, I have not been able to find a single national Web Site for Public Administration in any of the CAFRAD member states.  However, the following site contains a map of Africa on which one can click for entries providing information about the member states.  Go to: www.cafrad.org/cafrad/a_member_states.htm  Some of these entries may have links to national web-sites, but they are not listed here.

 

v     ASIA AND THE PACIFIC :

 

The oldest and most important regional organizatin for public administration in Asia is EROPA, the Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~hkpaa/eropa_home.htm  One may find a statement of its goals in the context of globalization in a speech by Emil Q. Javier, President, University of the Philippines, offered at the Eropa World Conference on Governance http://www.csc.gov.ph/wcoghomepage.html He …traced the evolution of the paradigm shift from government to governance as a natural outcome of globalization, the ascendancy of markets, and the wave of democratization that swept the world in the late 1980’s. The shift from government to governance, noted Dr. Javier, is a reflection of the empowerment of the "governed" where "people" are no longer passive objects of public service but active participants in the process of governance.  

 

The Public Service Department of Malaysia also maintains a Web Site for EROPA, http://www.jpa.gov.my/jpai/korporati/ihasa2.htm.  It provides useful information about EROPA activities and members, but no links to their Web Sites. 

 

However, the ASEAN Conference on Civil Service Matters (ACCSM), which was established in 1981, promotes cooperation among ASEAN countries to modernize their Civil Service systems.  See: http://www.jpa.gov.my/jpai/korporati/ihasa3.htm. According to information on this page, the main objective of ACCSM is to modernize the public service systems in the context of national development. With this cooperation, the expertise of ASEAN member countries especially in training, consultancy, exchange of information and research can be fully utilized.

 

AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND

 

Australia and New Zealand are members of EROPA and so they are included here.

The Institute of Public Administration of Australia http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/community/ipaa/

 

The New Zealand Institute of Public Administration has a Web Site that I could not open, but information about it can be found at: http://searchpdf.adobe.com/proxies/1/30/47/94.html

 

Both of these institutes seem to be quite focused on domestic problems, but undoubtedly they are actually as much involved in the global system as are their counterparts in other countries. 

 

v     COMMONWEALTH:

 

The Commonwealth is an association of states formerly associated with the British Empire.  It sponsors the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) that has a Web Site at: http://www.capam.comnet.mt/.  A list of members, including links for the sites of associated organizations, can be found at:

http://www.capam.comnet.mt/member.html#current_members

 

Substantively, it is relevant here to note that at its latest biennial conference (15 - 18 October 2000, Cape Town, South Africa) CAPAM members addressed the theme, Globalisation, Governance and Public Service," According to the conference report, "… In recent years, the link between democracy and trust has received an increasing share of attention in discussions of government reform. The Commonwealth is witnessing a resurgence of concern about the erosion of the basic principles and standards of public life.  According to a preliminary planning document, http://www.capam.comnet.mt/cbiconf.htm#lead  the conference might focus on such questions as the following:

 

What are the directions we wish to take our countries in the future?  What are the common goals and values emerging in the various Commonwealth countries that will inspire others to collaborate in achieving this new vision in the 21st Century?  How do we lead within an increasingly interconnected world, with societies characterised by diversity?  How do we move away from opportunistic leadership to more strategic leadership? How do we lead in an environment of low morale and reform fatigue? How do we capitalise on technology?  How do we move from a focus on management practices to a broader vision of the future?  How do we continue to meet ethical standards in the spirit of public service? Where do find the people who will lead us into the 21st Century? Lastly, what will globalisation mean for leadership at the dawn of the new millennium?

 

 

v     CARIBBEAN:

 

The Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD) http://isis.uwimona.edu.jm/cesd/caricad/caricad.html

posts a Mission Statement that reads in part:

There is also a further dimension on which CARICAD's work has centred and is becoming increasingly pertinent in the face of global trends for privatisation and divestment, restructuring of the public-private sector interface, social consequences of structural adjustment, sustainability and environmental issues. By means of close working relations with the multilateral agencies and in particular through collaboration with such organisations as the Commonwealth Secretariat and tertiary-level research institutes, the benefits of a comparative perspective beyond the region is brought to bear on national and regional issues.

 

v     CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE:

The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe, http://www.nispa.sk  … aims to become a forum for East - East dialogue through joint research, educational and training programmes and discussions between instructors, civil servants, trainers and public sector managers. This will promote both human capacity building and institutional development through learning from each other. NISPAcee should foster preferably East - East cooperation, as well as East - West cooperation, which has predominated until now.

NISPAcee enlists 100 Institutional members (from 19 countries), 28 Associate members (from 16 countries), and 159 Observers (from 27 countries). A list with their addresses, but no Web links, can be found at: http://www.nispa.sk/home/list.html

v     LATIN AMERICA:

The Latin American Center for Development Administration (CLAD) http://www.clad.org.ve/homee.html held its 1998 Congress in Madrid. Among three roundtables at this meeting, one had the theme:  The State of the XXI century. Changes in the function and structure of the State. State, market and globalization. Governance and governability.

 

A list of CLAD members can be found at: http://www.clad.org.ve/miembros.html  Some of them have their own Web Sites, as listed below.  It is not always clear what interest they have in public administration, but since my knowledge of Spanish is rudimentary, I may not well understand the texts.

 

ARGENTINA:

The SUBSECRETARIO DE LA GESTIÓN PÚBLICA DE LA JEFATURA DE GABINETE DE MINISTROS, http://www.sfp.gov.ar/webs/funciones.html  Includes as no. 12. Supervisar el accionar del INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE LA ADMINISTRACION PUBLICA (I.N.A.P.).

BRAZIL:

National School of Public Administration, WWW.ENAP.GOV.BR/HTML/INGLES.HTM

According to this site, One of ENAP’s objectives is fostering the debate about the changes faced worldwide by the State and the public administration. For this purpose, it carries out events with the participation of national and foreign lecturers, and produces … specialized publications.

CHILE

The Division de Modenizacion, WWW.MODERNIZACION.CL, writes the following:

La naturaleza altamente compleja del proceso de globalización que afecta a todas las sociedades, impone el desafío de adecuar los ordenamientos institucionales, normativos e instrumentales de los países. Globalización no sólo concebida como interdependencia económica –especialmente en materia de mercados financieros-, sino también como la transformación del tiempo y del espacio en nuestras vidas.

COLOMBIA:

Escuela Superior de Administración Pública, http://www.esap.edu.co/esap/index.htm  Its Web Site contains this information: Gobernabilidad.  Producto del debilitamiento de las diferentes instancias del Estado y de la baja participación política de los colombianos, se identifica en múltiples escenarios la pérdida de capacidad de la sociedad para sacar adelante las estrategias de desarrollo que se propone, para garantizar la convivencia y la armonía entre los diferentes intereses y la prevalencia del estado de derecho en todas las esferas de la vida nacional.

La falta de gobernabilidad se identifica hoy como un eje central de la crisis nacional, que impide la solución democrática de las más importantes falencias de nuestro sistema económico y social y que adicionalmente establece un ambiente de impotencia de todos los estamentos del país.

 

COSTA RICA:

Ministerio de Planificación Nacional y Política Económica (MIDEPLAN), http://ns.mideplan.go.cr/  focuses, on national planning and its relevance for public administration is not clear.

MEXICO

The National Institute of Public Administration (INAP) www.org.org.ms/inap/presenta.htm contains this text:  Intensificar la presencia del INAP en otros países a través de la participación en diversos foros internacionales y fortalecer las actividades de colaboración con instituciones afines, mediante la suscripción de convenios.

 

URUGUAY:

Oficina Nacional del Servicio Civil http://www.onsc.gub.uy/ La Oficina Nacional del Servicio Civil es responsable de formular la política de recursos humanos y controlar su ejecución en la Administración Pública, tomando como principios fundamentales el desempeño y la calificación; estimulando el compromiso de los funcionarios públicos con la prestación de un servicio eficiente orientado hacia el usuario y la innovación de la gestión, asesorando en programas de modernización del Estado en las áreas mencionadas.

 

v     MIDDLE EAST :

The Arab Administration Development Organization (ARADO), sponsored by UNESCO, apparently lacks a Web Site. Although clearly not included in ARADO, I have not been able to find a public administration site for Israel.

 

v     NORTH AMERICA:

 

CANADA:

The Institute of Public Administration of Canada, http://www.ipaciapc.ca/

According to its announcement, In recent years, … the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) has ….exported Canadian knowledge of public administration to countries around the world. In this context, IPAC has brought benefits to many people in the client countries, ranging from improving the decision-making processes so that governments can better deliver their mandates, to seeing improved methods implemented to reduce pollution.

Why pursue an international role? IPAC believes that Canadians wish to share their unique expertise in public administration. Our members wish to contribute to international knowledge in public administration. They also want the benefits of experience in public administration in other countries and cultures.

 

v     THE UNITED STATES;

By contrast with many other countries, the U.S. government does not provide a focal institution for teaching and research on Public Administration.  There are, of course, government agencies directly involved in monitoring and regulating the performance of administrative functions, as noted below.  The most conspicuous context for linking and studying Public Administration in America is probably The American Society for Public Administration which posts a Site at: http://www.aspanet.org/  With a diverse membership composed of more than 10,000 practitioners, scholars, teachers and students, ASPA is the largest and most prominent professional association in the field of Public Administration.

On its Web Site, one may find links to a large and miscellaneous collection of American organizations, plus a few located elsewhere. http://www.aspanet.org/links/links.htm Among its Sections, one specifically dedicated to International and Comparative Administration (SICA) has a page at: http://www.uncc.edu/stwalker/sica/  On this page, one can read that,

SICA members are dedicated to meeting the global challenges of the 21st Century.  We will: 

The National Academy of Public Administration, http://www.napawash.org/napa/index.html has evolved out of ASPA.  It is an elected college whose members have been honored and they constitute a large panel available to take part in studies of major administrative problems facing the government, usually under a contract with some public agency.  One of their groups is The International Affairs Standing Panel which focuses on the Academy's role in the international community. Unlike other Standing Panels, all of which have Web Sites to describe their activities, this Panel lacks a public window on its activities. 

 

U.S. GOVERNMENT

Turning to the federal government itself, we may go first to a site maintained by Louisiana University.  It lists all U.S. Federal agencies that post Web Sites.  See: http://www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/exec.html.  Among them, the most immediately relevant for present purposes may be the Office of Personnel Management which maintains a site at:  http://www.opm.gov/. 

One of its activities that is especially relevant to our present concerns is the National Partnership for Reinventing Government , led by Vice President Al Gore, whose site is: http://www.npr.gov/  On this site one may find a A REPORT BY THE 21ST CENTURY SKILLS LEADERSHIP GROUP.  Under the heading, A Blueprint for Lifelong Learning  (Nov. 1999) it contains this opening paragraph:

As we enter the new century, preparing the nation's workforce is more important than ever before. The impact of globalization is constant and permanent. Knowledge is growing exponentially, and changes -- technological and otherwise -- will accelerate. Lifelong learning is imperative, and the rewards are likely to be great.  The full text can be found at: http://www.npr.gov/cgi-bin/print_hit_bold.pl/library/misc/bluprint.html?globalization

Another relevant item offered here deals with electronic government.  It reads, New and emerging forms of information technology are vital tools in changing Americans' experience with their government. NPR is committed to using information technology and the Internet to transform how citizens interact with government. Its goal is to provide better access to government services. It's all about putting people "online, not in line."

Under the leadership of Vice President Al Gore, NPR published a blueprint for developing our electronic government program, called Access America. It will eventually allow anyone who wants to transact business with the government electronically to do so easily and quickly. Further details about this initiative can be found at http://www.accessamerica.gov/docs/access.html

Associated with this initiative are a number of specific partnerships between the government and other interested organizations, public and private.  Among them is one called the Benchmarking partnership. http://www.npr.gov/initiati/benchmk/  Its purposes are described as follows: When organizations want to improve their performance, they benchmark. That is, they compare and measure their policies, practices, philosophies, and performance measures against those of high-performing organizations anywhere in the world.  As federal agencies have been reinventing their operations to become more businesslike, many have been benchmarking against world class private sector companies, other organizations, and other federal agencies that have become really good at what they do. In fact, some companies are beginning to benchmark against high-performing federal agencies!

UNIVERSITIES

Many American Universities have departments, schools and institutes in which Public Administration is taught and researched.  To find them, we turn to the National Association of Schools of Public Administration, Public Policy and Public Affairs (NASPAA) http://www.naspaa.org/index.html . Among the various categories of institutions identified on this list are universities that offer a Ph.D. in Public Administration -- or in Public Policy.  They are identified at: http://www.naspaa.org/doctoral/docintro.htm  A few are mentioned here, in alphabetical  order, for illustrative purposes.  Although they usually cling to Public Administration as a useful label, it is significant that many now prefer Public Policy or Public Affairs.  This development is reflected in the name of NASPAA which now includes both terms, in addition to Public Administration. 

Harvard University, J.F.Kennedy School of Government, http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/ What is today the John F. Kennedy School of Government traces its origins to Harvard University's Graduate School of Public Administration, which was established in 1936. … By the mid-1960s, faculty began to develop a public policy curriculum based more in economics and analytic studies than on the management principles of traditional Public Administration.

The University of Maryland, School of Public Affairs, http://www.puaf.umd.edu/.  offers a Ph.D. in Policy Studies, with a major in environmental, social and other policy fields, plus Management, Finance and Leadership -- it also offers a Masters degree in Public Management.  The word administration is avoided.   A message from the dean claims that the School provides   … current and future leaders with the knowledge and skills they will need to craft and implement public policies in a complex policy environment. With the blurring of roles among the public, private and non-profit sectors in policymaking and management, our graduates need to excel not only in their chosen fields, but also across sectors.

New York University, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, http://www.nyu.edu/wagner/programs.html.  They say they are: Committed to an interdisciplinary approach to learning... Our core curriculum provides a foundation in finance, policy, and management. As advances in technology bring the world closer together and shifts in public policy result in new public-private partnerships, Wagner prepares students to work in the public, non-profit and for-profit sectors in the global environment.

University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public and International Policy, http://www.gspia.pitt.edu/.  They say, We stress the connection between domestic and international issues and the connections between different approaches to those problems—policy, planning, and management. We stress, also, the connections between the sectors—public, nonprofit, and private—and educate students for the careers of the future, where people increasingly move across sectors.

Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, http://www.wws.princeton.edu/. They define themselves as  … a professional school for men and women who seek a career in public service; it is a school for those with a practical desire to make the world a better place. The School became a major international center of advanced training and research in public affairs. Today, the School emphasizes experiential, policy-oriented research and learning in its graduate program. It serves interests in both domestic public policy and international affairs.

University of Southern California, School of Policy, Planning and Development http://www.usc.edu/schools/sppd/index.html.  They assert that There are many opportunities for leadership in our decentralizing, horizontal, global world, and our faculty, students, and alumni are uniquely positioned to capitalize on them. Whether we are identifying and evaluating the costs and consequences of policy choices; designing new governance structures and processes; leading and managing in a public-private health care system where policy choices and market choices have profound consequences for everyone; or designing and developing places to live, work, and play; we are working now for a better society in the next century

Syracuse University, The Maxwell School http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/pa/ , is now a multidisciplinary graduate school with departments of Public Administration and Political Science.  However, it has a broad multi-disciplinary and public affairs orientation.  It was … the first school in the U.S. to provide graduate education in Public Administration. Graduates of the Public Administration programs serve at all levels of government in the United States and around the world. Many also hold responsible positions in the private and non-profit sectors. Graduates of our doctoral program are faculty members at other high quality public affairs programs and research institutes in the United States and abroad.

The Section for International and Comparative Administration of ASPA at least has a formal commitment to promote the study of International Administration. It maintains on its Web Site a start-up list of some relevant organizations -- see: http://www.uncc.edu/stwalker/sica/links.htm#International.

The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) -- see: http://qsilver.queensu.ca/appam/information/index.shtml aspires to be ...the leading professional organization dedicated to blending the talents of researchers, educators and practitioners in the production, dissemination and application of analysis bearing on public concerns.  It supplements ASPA by providing links to many of the relevant disciplines, but it's orientation seems to be quite national rather than international, and I have not found any international association for public policy studies.

 

DOCUMENTATION:

 

There is a growing literature on the global problems of public administration.  A good starting point to access this literature can be found in the Public Administration journals that should be available in many good libraries.  A comprehensive list of them can be found through the Periodicals Contents Index, which has a site for Political Science and Public Administration at: http://pci.chadwyck.co.uk/titles/comp_19.html Unfortunately, only titles and publication dates are listed, without Web Sites, or even mailing addresses.  However, much can be learned by reading their titles.

 

INDIVIDUALS: 

 

Another resource can be found in the minds of specialists located at many places around the world. Some of them can be found through the Public Administration Theory Network   http://www.pat-net.org/ The Network does not have a collective identity, but members do share in common the idea that public administration is as much about the social construction of society as it is about the administration of public services. Over the past few years, the membership has become more international, with members representing Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America. Some members of the Network embrace a postmodern critique of society and public administration.  Their views are reflected in a recent book, Public Administration in a New Era Postmodern and Critical Perspective, Edited by Mario A. Rivera, University of New Mexico and Gary M. Woller, Brigham Young University. 

 

A list of members with their own Web Sites can be found at: http://www.pat-net.org/pages/memberpages.html   Their next conference will be held in June, 2001 in the Netherlands at Leiden University. An illuminating look at the point of view of this group can be found in the plans for this conference which will focus on the "changing nature of governance and the new dynamics of the public sphere."  More details are available from the host university, at Leiden, Netherlands., where the local hosts have organized the Pioneer Project, dedicated to study of the "Renaissance of Public Administraton."  Their home page is: http://www.fsw.leidenuniv.nl/www/w3_best/ropa/index.htm

 

The core themes of the conference are expressed in the following captions:

 

No doubt one needs to know more about what they have in mind when speaking, for example, about "reconceptualizing public administration," but on the surface, at least, one may imagine that attention will be paid to the impact of globalization as a force that is transforming traditional structures of hierarchical management within states, opening the channels that enable citizens as well as government officials to interact widely, around the world, with counterparts who share their interests and experience.  The other headings in this list provide further clues to the nature of this transformation which the world is now experiencing. 

 

 A different but comparable group is the International Public Management network. http://www.willamette.org/ipmn/  As stated on this website,  The mission of the International Public Management Network (IPMN) is to provide a forum for sharing ideas, concepts and results of research and practice in the field of public management, and to stimulate critical thinking about alternative approaches to problem solving and decision making in the public sector.

 

The intent of the International Public Management Network is to create and sustain a dialogue on emerging management concepts methods and technology so that members can learn about innovation and change in public sector organizations throughout the world. IPMN presently includes members representing fifteen different countries and has a goal of expanding membership to include representatives from as many nations as possible.

 

The IPMN seems to have a much more traditional focus than the PAT-Net, but both groups seek to work globally with individuals willing to share experiences and ideas. Papers presented at their regular conferences and workshops are posted on the Web Site, together with an impressive list of members.  They publish The International Public Management Journal, and expect all manuscripts to be submitted electronically, an interesting sign of globalism in practice.

 

 

REMAINING CHALLENGES: 

GAPS TO BE FILLED

 

The discussion offered above focuses on the administration of sovereign states, the traditional focus of Public Administration.  However, under the impact of globalization -- including our evolving capability to network with individuals at all levels and places, via the INTERNET -- we need to broaden the scope of our field to include various categories of information that are usually ignored by specialists on Public Administration. I will touch on them very briefly because each of these gaps in our knowledge is itself a vast field of study and we lack both the information and the space to deal with them adequately here.  Among the areas of inquiry that need to be explored further in the context of Public Administration, let me call attention to some that need further study in order to complete the analysis of how globalization has affected public administration.

 

v     Gaps in the Coverage of States

v     The Continuing Role of Patronage  

v     The Armed Forces in Public Administration  

v     International Administration

v     Public Policy

v     The Third Sector

v     Sub-State Jurisdictions

v     External Intervention and Technical Assistance

 

Globalization has radically shifted the priorities for public administration by expanding the locus of action, both above and beyond states and also below them.  State bureaucracies remain foundational, but their functions and style have been significantly re-shaped by the new and expanding structures created under the influence of accelerating globalization.  To understand the impact of globalization on public administration in general, therefore, we need to look not only at what is happening in state bureaucracies but also at many other levels, including both trans-state and sub-state organizations.  Our Web Site data shows that while resources openly available on the INTERNET for understanding and improving state-level public administration have already increased dramatically, especially for the more affluent countries, comparable resources are not yet available to study and improve non-state public administration.

 

v     Gaps in the Coverage of States

 

Moreover, although many states are well served by institutions and resources dedicated to the strengthening of public administration, many are not.  One indication is the long list of countries not included in the listing offered above. Although immense strides have been made in many countries to open their systems of public administration to popular and international discourse by posting sites on the INTERNET, it is also true that in many countries the resources needed for such innovations are scarce or not available. 

 

New Web Pages are needed at many levels, especially in the less developed countries where resources are still scarce and creating Web sites for Public Administration may seem like a luxury that cannot be afforded.  However, in the near future, even the poorest states will discover that a small investment in the creation of Web resources will prove cost-effective.  They will be able, using them, to tap more easily into the world's resources that can be mobilized to help them cope with the huge problems they face.

 

Even where Web sites have been posted, most of the substantive discourse on Public Administration as a discipline continues to direct attention to the traditional problems of public management in sovereign states.  Nevertheless, as our narrative and some of the Sites identified in this article show, there has also been a lot of innovation and movement into spaces opened up by globalization. 

 

v     THE CONTINUING ROLE OF PATRONAGE

 

Most writers on modern public administration presuppose the existence of a career bureaucracy.  There are expedient reasons that reinforce this preference since it is only possible to train future office-holders when there are established procedures to recruit them on a competitive basis.  By contrast, when officials are appointed because of family or political relations, it is impossible to predict who they will be.  One cannot, therefore, develop training programs for future patronage appointees.

 

As a result, it seems evident that Public Administration as a discipline has flourished mainly in countries where merit systems for recruiting public officials have been established -- not only in Western industrialized countries but in post-colonial regimes where colonial administrators had been recruited on the basis of some kind of merit system.  However, when one takes a global look at public administration as process of implementing public policies, it seems clear that in much of the world office holders are still the beneficiaries of political favoritism.  A globalized field of Public Administration needs to take them into account. 

 

In the United States, although most public officials are now career officers, many in-and-out patronage appointees continue to hold office, indeed, they usually monopolize the highest posts in the bureaucracy. The mere fact that one cannot offer courses in Public Administration to those who may eventually be appointed to public offices for political reasons should not prevent serous students of Public Administration from studying the functions and problems of political appointees in public office.  To gain a comprehensive view of public administration as a function, we need to include within the framework of our analysis all those who manage public policies, whether or not they are career officers,

 

Moreover, when we expand the scope of Public Administration to include sub-states, inter-state organizations, and NGOs, we will find that in these jurisdictions even more than in nation states, many office-holders are patronage appointees.  Also, because of "quota" systems favoring candidates who belong to particular national, racial, religious or ethnic communities, or because of their gender, we will find that different kind of preferences may be as important as technical qualifications.

 

v     THE ARMED FORCES IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION  

 

A second category of public officials who are typically ignored by specialists on Public Administration involves military personnel.  Traditionally, the discipline has looked only at the civil services and ignored the armed forces. This, I believe, not only  distorts our understanding of how states manage public affairs, but increasingly, now, at trans-state levels, we see military personnel involved in the peace-keeping, humanitarian, and overtly military functions of the UN and other international and regional organizations. 

 

I believe the focus of American Public Administration on the civil services while largely ignoring those in uniform reflects the historical accident that the Armed Forces had their own training academies before Public Administration became established as an academic discipline.  This made the study of military administration irrelevant in universities -- at least, they did not see their students as future officers.  Such considerations may not have applied in other countries, but my impression is that almost everywhere the study of Public Administration does focus on civilians in public service while excluding military personnel who, after all, are similarly engaged in the practice of public administration.

 

In a global perspective, it is even more important to include the military in our work on Public Administration because, in many states, military men have not only been involved in the management of public functions but in all too many they have actually seized power and become a ruling elite.  They may also manage many para-military functions

that they view as complementary to their main concerns.  The overlap between the political and the administrative functions of the armed forces deserves systematic attention and needs to be brought within the scope of Public Administration as a discipline. 

 

v     INTERNATIONAL ADMINISTRATION

 

A striking example of the enhanced role of the military in public administration can be seen in their growing involvement in international peace-keeping, humanitarian, and emergency situations.  This brings us to another vast domain, the administration of international organizations.  Although they often rely on military and police forces, most of their work is scientific, developmental, environmental, humanitarian, economic and social with vast implications for the contemporary world system.  UNESCO plays a pivotal role in providing a formal institutional framework for global cooperation in educational, scientific, and cultural matters.  Since readers of this essay will be well informed about UNESCO (see links above) it seems redundant to say more about it here.  It may be more useful to talk about the non-governmental international associations, many of which are, however, closely linked to UNESCO.

 

Unfortunately, the administrative problems of international organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, remain a large zone of ignorance.  It would be very useful, I think, if more resources could be devoted to the analysis of how these increasingly important bodies can be managed more effectively, taking into account the huge limitations imposed on their budgets, and their extreme sensitivity based on the vulnerability of their sponsors and their need for privacy.  The massive index provided by the Union of International Associations (noted above) provides an overwhelming array of data and sites that identify the substantive interests of these associations, but we still lack in-depth knowledge of their organizational problems.  Perhaps a network to help them share experiences and capitalize on the knowledge of public management developed at the intra-state level would prove very useful to them and all their friends and supporters. 

 

v     PUBLIC POLICY

 

The boundaries between disciplines, and between the public and private spheres, have become increasingly blurred for many years, but globalization has accelerated this process.  The field of public policy has emerged as a good example of the overlapping matrix that results.  Although public administration is clearly a focal point in policy studies, specialists in policy analysis feel uneasy about identifying their concerns with the field of Public Administration.  The American university sites identified above link to public affairs programs in which Public Administration is sometimes, though not always, accepted as a sub-field.  They realize that politics is as much a part of policy analysis as administration, and that public management is as applicable to non-profit associations as it is to government institutions.  Perhaps even more importantly, they see that policy in today's world has to extend beyond state boundaries.  The traditional focus of Public Administration on intra-state policy management within state institutions is no longer adequate.

 

In the United States, the differences between traditional Public Administration and the newer focus on Public Policy has been institutionalized by the creation of APPAM, The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management http://qsilver.queensu.ca/appam/.  According to its announced goals: APPAM embraces the dual objectives of producing the tools and techniques appropriate for public decision making, and communicating the results of policy analyses and management studies to public and nonprofit organizations for the purpose of assisting decision makers.

 

As for the global perspective, note that one of the themes planned for the coming APPAM  (November 2000) conference in Seattle is:

 

There is a list of universities and private organizations that are APPAM members at:

http://qsilver.queensu.ca/appam/membership/institutional.shtm

 

Until now, there does not appear to be any international counterpart to APPAM, and perhaps the IIAS, IASIA and EGPA will be flexible enough to broaden the scope of their activities so as to include the new globally relevant problems examined under the public policy label.  If they fail to do that, the field may be constricted as it has been in the United States where those interested in the broader concepts of Public Affairs and  Policy Analysis have seceded from Public Administration. It seems to me that the field of Public Administration, which is surely central to the management of public policy, needs to expand its identity so as include public policy analysis, in its global setting, as a legitimate part of its mandate.

v     SUB-STATE JURISDICTIONS

 

Just as state-oriented specialists on Public Administration tend to ignore international organizations and public policy concerns, they also pay little attention to the administration of sub-state organizations, especially regional and local governments.  To take a quick look at this subject, consider the work of the International Union of Local Authorities, as reported on its home page at: http://www.iula.org/   Among its goals, IULA aims 

 

v     To be the worldwide source of key information and intelligence regarding democratic local government; and

v     To be the worldwide source of learning, exchange and capacity building programmes for democratic local government.

 

The Union is a federation of regional associations -- they are mapped with links to each at: http://www.iula.org:8888/websites/iula/IULA2ndWebSite.nsf/All+Pages/URL/IULA-EFrame?OpenDocument

 

Among IUIA's activities is a project entitled Municipal International Cooperation and Capacity Building. Work has begun on an Executive Summary of the IULA Policy Paper on Municipal International Cooperation, to facilitate its distribution to the members of IULA and partner organisations.  The exchange of information on decentralised cooperation initiatives and related research or conferences continues.

In addition to the IULA, there are other associated international organizations devoted to various options and specializations in local government.  An example is the ICMA, International City Management Association, http://www.icma.org/t . A list that includes  the ICMA and other related associations can be found at the IULA site referenced above.

 

v     THE THIRD SECTOR

Overlapping the notion of sub-state jurisdictions are many non-state associations designed to serve public, not-for profit, purposes.  Public and private schools are owned and managed in different ways, but they all seek to educate the young.  The same can be said in public health, welfare, environmental, scientific and technological areas where state and private organizations overlap and influence each other.  In my opinion the public/private distinction should not be based on the distinction between state and non-state ownership, but rather on the more significant differences between for-profit corporations and non-profit organizations.  No doubt there are significant overlaps between all such rather essentialist categories, but a fundamental distinction separates those whose activities are governed by market forces based on supply/demand and prices by contrast with organizations whose activities are financed by taxes, gifts or contributions.  We lack any term for this form of support which, whether voluntary or involuntary, is intended to finance all the activities of an organization and not just pay for a specific service or product. No doubt there are shared administrative features of all organizations, whether they are market or non-market oriented.  However, the resources available for Business Administration are so large in relation to those devoted to Public Administration, that it seems necessary for the latter to achieve a separate identity in order to succeed. Schools for Business Administration have developed a vast repertoire of knowledge and experience concerning the administration of profit-making corporations and it is unnecessary to say anything more about them here. 

 

However, it is important to focus on the administration of non-profit non-state organizations.  If Public Administration would expand the scope of its interests to include them, I suspect both sub-fields would benefit.  Globalization has, in fact, brought about a vast increase in the number of non-governmental international organizations whose administrative problems deserve careful study.  They could benefit, I believe, by drawing extensively on the knowledge accumulated by Public Administration -- and that field would increase its relevance by paying attention to the problems shared by all non-profit organizations (both public and private).  

 

There is, indeed,  a vast and growing realm of non-profit agencies that are sometimes seen as a Third Sector.  Both Business Schools and Public Administration programs tend to ignore them although they do have some exponents in both camps.  One may learn more about them through the International Society for Third Sector Research that has a Web Site at: http://www.jhu.edu/~istr/ According to its statement of goals,

 

In this era of far-reaching changes in the way that societies are organized, the Third Sector is playing a critical role and has significantly gained importance in many countries. International research toward a better understanding of the economic, sociological, historical, cultural, legal and political implications of these changes continues to gather momentum.

The answers to our question are important in their own right. But, they are also a necessary foundation for more widely informed debate about domestic political reform and reshaping international relations, about the performance of public policies, and about people directing the social and other effects of economic growth. Enhancing knowledge about the roles, beneficiaries and achievements of the Third Sector is a pre-condition for improving such debates.

 

Interestingly, the Society does not mention "administrative" problems, perhaps because they are looking at the role these organizations play in society rather than the problems they confront when they organize themselves to do their work. As noted above under International Organizations, even the prolific data supplied by the UIA fails to provide much information about the administrative problems they face.

 

No doubt those who exclude the Third Sector from Public Administration may assume that non-profit non-governmental administration has more in common with business management than with government operations and, therefore, is not a proper subject for study under the heading of Public Administration. However, I believe this view has always been dysfunctional, and it is increasingly inappropriate now when globalization has increasingly fuzzed the distinctions at both global and local levels between governmental and non-governmental functions. 

 

v     EXTERNAL INTERVENTION AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

 

The UN, of course, is only the most centrally visible of many organizations that seek to provide technical assistance in public administration to developing countries.  Many governments and a large number of consultant organizations are still active, although they are much less visible than they were during the latter half of the 20th century when, following the collapse of the industrial empires, a flood of agencies arose to help the new states become established, and especially to create viable institutions for public administration and to organize themselves to promote economic growth.  This activity has tapered off, although it has been replaced, to some degree, by agencies designed to help authoritarian regimes become democracies -- or to strengthen institutions and practices that can consolidate democracies that already exist.  It would be interesting to identify and quote from the Sites established by organizations engaged in these activities, but it seems wise to postpone this exercise.

 

Instead, we may draw this article to an end by noting that globalization has already had a profound impact on the field of Public Administration, as illustrated by texts drawn from the growing number of Web Sites posted by governments, associations, universities, and others interested in this field, everywhere around the world.  However, in many ways the field remains rooted in premises that evolved in the context of state-centered civil service (career) bureaucracies and the laws governing their appointment and conduct.  Everywhere, however, one can find creative and imaginative thinking that has gone far beyond these foundational premises to create a field of study, like Public Policy,  that is increasingly response to the new world system generated by globalization and the revolutionary consequences of electronic information.  

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Posted 23 October 2000