Advanced Theory in Public Administration.

Catalog description

Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. This seminar aims to contribute to understanding public policy by examining the public administration context. It will assist participants, first, in gaining an overview of fundamental features of varieties of traditional public administration. The categories of public administration theory are described by Harmon and Mayer as classical, neoclassical, systems, human relations, market, interpretive and critical theories. Elsewhere, they are described in terms of science, technology, enterprise and hermeneutics. Second, this overview will also include exploring underlying and outlying perspectives that shape thinking and theorizing about public administration. Perspectives include traditional, business, economic, political, critical theory, post-structural, psychoanalytic, neuroscience, feminist, ethical and data. Third, this overview will provide post-traditional examples that can assist students in developing their own view of how public policy and administration theory and practice should be shaped.