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Public Administration in Troubled Waters: Organisations, Management and ‘A New Oceania’
Author(s) -
Thynne Ian
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8500.1996.tb01199.x
Subject(s) - legitimacy , administration (probate law) , politics , democracy , public administration , state (computer science) , government (linguistics) , stock (firearms) , power (physics) , political science , political economy , law and economics , sociology , law , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science , engineering
The crux of this article is that public administration is indeed in troubled waters in terms of the threatened legitimacy of the modern state: that many of the organisational and managerial reforms of recent years have had the effect of debasing parliamentary politics by ushering in a much more definite form of executive imperialism than has ever been witnessed in previous eras. More specifically, the reforms have changed, or are changing, the configurations of power and authority in and beyond government in ways that appear to enhance neither the processes of democratic rule nor the individual and collective well‐being of many sections of society. It is thus surely time to stand back, to take stock of the situation, and to question whether the reforms are in fact achieving goals and objectives to which governments and communities ought really to be committed.