Article Critique on "Accountability in the Public Sector"

Quoted Instructions for "Accountability in the Public Sector" Assignment:

Request if possible my previous *****, ***** or the ***** currently working on a very similar assignment/article critique with the same required texts/articles to review. This order is focusing on the author, Moynihan*****'s article, while the order I just placed yesterday is focused on the Behn article.

This is order is to present the substance of an article [Moynihan, Donald and Patricia Ingraham. *****Look for the Silver Lining: When Performance-Based Accountability Systems Work.***** Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. 2003 (13:4):469-490 ] during the class. Presentations should take about 15 to 20 minutes and will be followed by a short discussion. The reports should include a one to two page summary of the key elements of the articles. The reports should include the key ideas and findings. In addition, the reports should discuss the relationship of the article to the other readings for that session as well as the overall theme of the class.

The course has 4 course books assigned (listed below for reference and applicability if needed to give background and help respond to the article review.

1) This assignment readings and theme are: The Return of the Market, Retreat of The Progressive Agenda, and New Public Management:

Moynihan, Donald and Patricia Ingraham. *****Look for the Silver Lining: When Performance-Based Accountability Systems Work.***** Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. 2003 (13:4):469-490

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1) Collaborative Readings associated with the Article (Moynihan, Donald and Patricia Ingraham. *****Look for the Silver Lining: When Performance-Based Accountability Systems Work.***** Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. 2003 (13:4):469-490) reading:

1. Klingner, Donald, John Nalbandian and Barbara Romzek, *****Politics, Administration and Markets: Conflicting Expectations and Accountability.***** American Review of Public Administration. 32:2 (2002): 117-144.

2. Wamsley, Gary, Charles Goodsell, John Rohr, Camilla Stivers, Orion White and James Wolf. *****The Public Administration and the Governance Process,***** in Ralph Chandler, ed, A Centennial History of the American Administrative State, The Free Press: New York. 1987. Pp. 291-320.

3. Johnston, Jocelyn, Barbara Romzek and Curtis Wood. *****The Challenges of Contracting and Accountability Across the Federal System: From Ambulances to Space Shuttles.***** Publius: The Journal of Federalism. 2004 (34:3): 155-182.

4. Page, Stephen. *****The Web of Managerial Accountability: The Impact of Reinventing Government.***** Administration and Society 38, 2 (May 2006): 166-197.

5. Brown, Trevor and M. Potoski. *****Transaction Costs and Institutional Explanations for Government Production Decisions.***** Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. 13:4 (2003): 441-468.

6. Robert Behn (1998). *****"The New Public Management Paradigm and the Search for Democratic Accountability,*****" International Public Management Journal. 1968. (1:2): 131+

2) Course Texts Required (as background info.):

a. Cook, Brian J. Bureaucracy and Self Government. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

b. Nelson, William E. The Roots of American Bureaucracy, 1830-1900. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.

c. Bertelli, Anthony and Laurence Lynn. Madison*****s Managers: Public Administration and the Constitution. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2006.

d. Skowronek, Stephen. Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877-1920. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

3) Course Overview

This course represents an effort to combine the best of two doctoral courses: Public Administration Theory and Context of Public Administration. It builds on the assumption that the theoretical developments of the scholarly enterprise of Public Administration should not be studied separately from the context and actual practices of Public Administration. It will explicitly link theoretical perspectives of PA with the time/context when different approaches relevant to PA developed. Necessarily it will go beyond specific *****PA***** literature and extend into broader areas that examine the development of the American State, its constitutional foundations, governance institutions, as well as, the developments in the social sciences. A key objective of the course is to never be very far from both the theory and context of PA.

An important theoretical focus for the course is normative. This stems from recognition that particular values and norms, and debates about them, define what makes a field of knowledge and practice distinctive. Also, the problem that administration, especially modern, bureaucratic administration, poses for constitutional democracy is a major enduring theme in American political development. A central animating question that ties context and theory in our exploration is this: What is the proper role for public administration in the American republic? In brief, the core argument of the course is that unless one knows where the field of public administration came from, the contexts in which it developed and currently operates, and the leading normative debates in the discipline, one can be neither a good scholar nor a good practitioner.

This is a doctoral seminar, and as such the expectation is that seminar members will fully engage the material and the ideas of the scholars we read, and the views of other seminar members, at each session and over the whole course of the semester. Both autonomous learning and collective knowledge generation are essential demands of this seminar. Good thinking and good listening skills are both required.

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