Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Bringing Politics Back In: Defense Policy And The Theoretical Study Of Institutions And Processes, Kenneth R. Mayer, Khademian M. Anne

Kenneth R Mayer

Application of public administration theory to defense policy and procruemt. Students of public administration, regulatory processes, public bureaucracy, and policy studies rarely focus on defense as their substantive area. leaving the field to those trained in defense studies and international relations. THe result is negligible attention to the domestic political aspects of defense policy and minimal understanding of the administrative aspects of defense policy. We argue that a realistic examination of procurement in a political context of multiple and competing principals illustrates the difficulty of demanding accountability when goals are diverse and heavily debated, measured with difficulty, and where outcomes …