Public Administration: Understanding Management, Politics, and Law in the Public Sector

The ninth edition of Public Administration: Understanding Management, Politics, and Law in the Public Sector grounds students in the fundamentals of public administration while embracing its complexity. It describes, explains, and analyzes public administration through the lenses of three well-established perspectives: management, politics, and law. In addition to thoroughly refreshed examples and case studies, significant updates to this new edition include the following:

• The discussion of management has been collapsed into a single category, contemporary public management, to better reflect the blending of traditional/orthodox and new public management approaches in the field.
• Significant changes to federal administration initiated by the Trump administration, the emergence of "hyper-" partisanship, major court decisions affecting public administration, and newer scholarship and foci in public administration.
• A thoroughly rewritten chapter on budgeting and public finance.
• New public governance material is incorporated throughout the book, including collaborative models for coordinating administration with private organizations, particularly nonprofits.
• Additional attention is paid to public participation in public administration, including public administration's potential contribution to strengthening democratic citizenship.
• Thorough discussion of the latest managerial techniques and concepts as well as the contemporary performance orientation in the public sector.
• Downloadable instructor support materials including Key Points, Discussion and/or Test Questions, Multiple Choice Questions, True or False Questions, and an Answer Key to accompany each chapter in the book.

Together these revisions reinvigorate the book yet retain its core structure, ideas, and familiarity for students and instructors alike. While the new edition retains its focus on the U.S. context, the focus on managerial, legislative, and judicial functions lends itself well to public administration in many developed nations, making the book a popular choice with instructors around the globe. This time-tested and fully up-to-date textbook is required reading for all students of public administration, public management, and nonprofit management.

David H. Rosenbloom is Distinguished Professor of Public Administration at American University in Washington, DC.

Robert S. Kravchuk is Professor of Public Affairs in the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

Richard M. Clerkin is Professor MPA Director in the Department of Public Administration in the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University.