Comparative Public Admin

Catalog description

Governments around the world seek to deliver the same types of services to their populations. Yet, organizational structures and processes differ greatly. Comparative public administration aims to understand the similarities and differences in how bureaucracies organize and operate to achieve goals and deliver services, and evaluates their relative effectiveness in doing so. This course will address four major questions: (1) How are different administrative systems structured and what frameworks do we have for comparing them; (2) What factors shape the configuration of administrative systems; (3) How do the structural and behavioral characteristics of administrative systems affect policy outcomes; and (4) How does globalization affect the structure and function of government? Increasingly, state and local governments and the nonprofit sector look to other countries for administrative and policy innovation. This course will appeal to students who want to work internationally or, like a growing number of American public administrators, value having more potential solutions to policy challenges to consider.