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Are City Managers Greedy Bureaucrats?, John R. Bartle, Ronnie Lacourse Korosec

Public Administration Faculty Publications

William A. Niskanen's (1971, 1975) theory of bureaucracy has been a source of much debate and research.^ The theory assumes that utility-maximizing bureaucrats will seek to maximize their agency's discretionary budget. A central implication of this theory is that bureaus will supply output inefficiently or in quantities greater than that desired by citizens.

The authors test Niskanen's hypothesis by examining the decision of cities to contract out for services. Their premise is that city managers fit the characteristics of the greedy bureaucrat Niskanen describes. If his theory is valid, then city managers should be expected to avoid contracting out because …

Book Review Of Postmodern Public Administration By Charles Fox And Hugh Miller, Gary S. Marshall

Public Administration Faculty Publications

The final decade of this century is proving to be both ruthless and rewarding for all of us in public administration. A period of fractured meaning has displaced the narrative of unity and progress embedded in our modernist consciousness. Postmodernism burst full-tilt onto the public administration theory scene in the late 1980's and has reconfigured the intellectual ground in new and dynamic ways. Because of it, new space for discourse--albeit limited space for idealism and a perceived (perhaps misunderstood)¹ greater space for cynicism exists.

Midlands Institute For Non-Profit Management - Building A Solid Foundation, 1995, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

Agenda and material from the Midlands Institute for Non-Profit Management - Building a Solid Foundation Conference, July 10-14, 1995.

Journal Of The Community Development Society Vol. 26, No. 02, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

An important function of the Journal of the Community Development Society is to report on research conducted in the field of community development. In particular the research that we report in this journal should have research questions that pertain to the theory and practice of purposive community change. One of the more critical tasks of journal editors, then, is to ensure that proposed articles in fact have appropriate, clear, and relevant research questions. A research question, however, is a multi-faceted creature. As many of us recall from our introductory courses in research methods, there are actually three types of research …

Journal Of The Community Development Society Vol. 26, No. 01, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

As mentioned in previous editions, one of the critical functions of this journal is to facilitate communication between researchers and practitioners working in community development. It is important to not only report on completed research, as is the major task of most research-based journals, but to also include comments from others who have reviewed the journal articles. Since this journal serves the needs of both researchers and practitioners it is necessary to stimulate a continuing dialogue among both groups on common community development topics.