hedy.isaacs@uwimona.edu.jm

This course examines theoretical perspectives by applying the techniques of administrative analysis to a number of current trends and areas. The course will look at some of the major shifts in public administration over the last twenty years. These shifts include developments in public sector management doctrine, reflecting the causes, context and consequences of the rise of the ‘New Public Management’, the paradigmatic shifts in public sector managers’ roles, approaches to productivity improvement and environmental management.

Students who successfully complete this course are expected to know how to:

• Discuss critically the role of explanation in social sciences, as well as the competing and complementary modes of explanation which predominate in the academic study of public administration.


• Describe the conditions that allowed for the ascendancy of progressive public administration in the Twentieth Century as well as the causes of the eclipse of progressive public administration by the New Public Management.


• Discuss critically the implementation of New Public Management reforms in different jurisdictions, looking at issues of policy transfer and learning between developing and developed countries.


• Explain paradigmatic shifts in public sector managers’ roles.


• Distinguish strategies for public sector productivity improvement.


• Evaluate productivity improvement best practices and model programmes that have been implemented in a number of countries.


• Distinguish main themes in the philosophy and theories of environmental management as well as country specific initiatives.

Readings for each topic are divided into two sections. Core Reading denotes reading, which, is an essential accompaniment to the Lectures and Classes. Supplementary Reading denotes materials that will assist better essay writing. You should undertake such reading if you propose to focus on any particular topic and hope to answer an examination question on it. You cannot cover all the material or the topics with equal emphasis; the Supplementary Reading supports your choice of emphasis. In planning your reading, a good rule of thumb is to keep reading on a topic until you begin to encounter substantial repetition of themes and ideas. Learn to ‘skim and dip.’ Nothing prevents you from using other sources, indeed, at this stage you are expected to do so, but you should take care to specify such sources in your essay and in your examination writing.

Students will find that Christopher Hood’s (1994) text, Explaining Economic Policy Reversals, Buckingham, Open University Press, and Owen Hughes’ (1998) text, Public Management and Administration: An Introduction, 2 nd Edition, Basingstoke, Macmillan, are useful.

Two classes are held each week. All students are expected to prepare for, attend, and actively participate in each class. You will be expected to read in advance of lectures and to follow up the lectures with further study as the lectures will only provide a skeletal account of what you need to know for your coursework and examination purposes. Students are also required to select ONE hour during which they must attend and participate in tutorials. Students are expected to attend all tutorials.

This course is assessed on the basis of course work, examination and participation in class. Students are also required to complete course work and to write a three-hour exam at the end of the course.

It is estimated that students will devote a minimum of around ten hours per week to Theories and Themes in Public Administration (excluding revision). The examination and essay will be graded to a standard consonant with this level of knowledge and understanding. Students are also expected to select a topic for class discussion from the course outline and prepare an evaluative summary on the topic.

• Essay: 15% (Essay due March 17, 2004)


• Evaluative Summary: 15% (Summary due immediately after class presentation; 5-7 pages)


• Participation: 10%


• Examination: 60%

Informal anonymous evaluation will be conducted by all students during the fifth week of the semester. Class/ tutorial representatives will provide feedback to the lecturer regarding course content, materials, teaching methods, as well as any other issue that the students consider pertinent.

Formal anonymous evaluation will be conducted by all students by the 10 th week of the semester. Students will select a class representative in week 3. This representative will guide the class concerning completion of formal evaluation questionnaire.

The Lecture Programme 2005

Acknowledging the Works of Other Persons

When you use materials derived from other people’s work, you need to give the authors credit. Guidelines are posted on the Department of Government’s website, concerning the use of such materials. The University will not tolerate scholastic dishonesty. Consult your examinations regulations to see how the University deals with cases of scholastic dishonesty.

Recommended Manual of Style

Faculty of Social Sciences: The Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Latest edition recommended. This manual is available in the Main Library.

Your written work must be typed. Use size 12 font.

The primary objective of the evaluative summary is to introduce students to relevant literature on topics to be explored in the course and to communicate ideas concerning issues and themes encountered, in a thorough and critical, yet precise manner. There are three main components to the enterprise. First there is Distillation; where students will be expected to select and provide only the essential information from the relevant literature explored. Second there is Critique; which includes an in-depth and intense examination of the pros and cons of issues in discussions surrounding selected topics. Third, Application is a core element in the successful completion of an evaluative summary. After issues are distilled and critiqued, this core element must provide a full understanding of the implications and or/usefulness of major themes discussed by applying them. Essentially this means concepts and themes should provide the link to empirical data or practical circumstances and contexts.