State Management ─ An Enquiry into Models of Public Administration and Management

State Management offers a comprehensive yet concise introduction to the new field of state management, presenting an analysis of basic questions within the theories of bureaucracy, policy-making, principal-agent modelling and policy networks. Focussing upon recent state transformation, it illuminates public sector reform strategies such as New Public Management as well as incorporation, tendering and bidding, decentralization, team production and privatization.
This book argues that we should look upon the variety of models or approaches to public management or public administration as all belonging under "state management". The so-called "working state" in a well-ordered society involves government delivering services, paying for social security and respecting the rule of law. In this text, Jan-Erik Lane systematically examines the key approaches to the study of how government attempts to achieve these goals, discussing the pros and cons of alternative frameworks of analysis.
Each chapter discusses a different issue within state management that is integral to the broader debate, including:


Public regulation


The relationship between the law and the state


Combining ecology and policy making


Multi-level governance


The virtues and vices of public-private partnerships


Policy implementation


Presenting a clear overview of how the state operates when government sets out to deliver public services, and generating questions to encourage new research, State Management is a valuable new text for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in political science, public administration and public management.

Jan-Erik Lane has taught as a professor in several universities around the globe. He has published numerous books and articles on many topics in political science. He was professor at the University of Geneva between 1996-2008 and is currently Mercator visiting professor at Heidelberg university

Introduction: Is Public Management Different from Private Sector Management? 1. Formal Organisation Models: The Relevance of Informal Organisation 2. Asymmetric Information Models: The Principal-Agent Perspective 3. Policy Models: How Rational is Public Management? 4. Implementation Models: Bringing Outcomes into Public Management and Policy 5. Independent Agencies: Maximising Efficiency? 6. Policy Network Models: The Virtues and Vices of Public-Private Partnerships 7. Marketization Models: How Much Buying and Selling in Government? 8. Incorporation as a Strategy: Transforming The Public Enterprises 9. Principals and Agents: Public Regulation 10. Multi-Level Governance: Bringing in the Two Regional Dimensions 11. Politics and Jurisprudence: Law and the State 12. Ecology and Policy: How to Combine? 13. The Developmental State: From the Third World to the First World 14. The Comparative Challenge: Are there Different State Models? Conclusion: Public Management as the Encompassing Framework for State Management