Public Administration and Public Policy
This domain examines how policies are made and delivered: bureaucracy, the policy cycle, implementation, accountability, and public management reforms. It tests whether you can distinguish formal adoption from real outcomes.
Core concepts
- Weberian bureaucracy rests on hierarchy, written rules, merit recruitment, and impersonality. It can support predictability but also rigidity.
- The policy cycle runs from agenda setting and formulation to adoption, implementation, and evaluation. Evaluation compares outcomes with intended objectives.
- Principal-agent problems arise when officials have more information than ministers or citizens. Street-level bureaucrats exercise discretion that shapes policy in practice.
- New Public Management borrows market tools: performance targets, contracting, and user choice. Governance approaches stress networks and partnerships beyond hierarchy.
- Accountability can be political, legal, administrative, or social. Corruption reflects weak institutions, discretion, and lack of transparency.
Worked example
A government launches a digital permit system but applications still take months. A top-down explanation points to unclear rules, poor training, and no budget for back-office staff. A bottom-up explanation notes that local officials use discretion to request paper documents and prioritise familiar clients. The reasoned diagnosis uses implementation theory, principal-agent incentives, and street-level behaviour, then evaluates outcomes such as processing time, not just the launch announcement.
Traps
Do not equate policy adoption with implementation success. Do not confuse outputs such as forms processed with outcomes such as service quality. Avoid treating the politics-administration dichotomy as a description of reality.