Journal Articles

Beyond Bureaucracy—Public Administration as Political Integrator and Non-Weberian Thought in Germany

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The political role of public administration holds an ambiguous status in public administration theory. The dominant paradigms of the discipline offer more or less negative perspectives. Max Weber’s notion of bureaucracy conceives public administration as the apolitical tool of government, while the public choice school conceives it as the realm of individual selfishness and rent seeking at taxpayers’ expense. In this unfavorable epistemological environment, positive concepts of what makes public administration “political” can hardly flourish. However, as public authorities may organize clientele participation and consequently co-opt stakeholders, they provide for symbolic sense making and create patterns of identity. Public administration thus works as a political integrator in its own right. Unfortunately, this subject is not prominent within contemporary scholarly research. German political integration through administration is analyzed here in order to address these and related theoretical questions.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Public Administration Review

Call Number

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Publisher

Hoboken, United States : Wiley-Blackwell., 2010

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

00333352

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Edition

Volume 70, Issue 5, September/October 2010, pages

Subject(s)

Public administration
German

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