Public Policy and Administrative Governance
Governance 390
Course
Outline
Unit 1
Introduction to Public Policy and Administrative Governance
Unit 1 introduces public policy and administrative governance. The commentary for this first unit will familiarize you with the core concepts used in the study of public policy and administration. What is public policy? What does the term “administrative governance” mean? What is the difference between public administration and private administration? What is the relationship between policy studies and the study of public administration? These are some of the core questions that this unit answers.
The assigned readings go further than simply introducing political and administrative governance. They examine the organization of the executive branch of government, recent trends in the structure of the Canadian state, and, more importantly, they reveal the ways in which the New Public Management (NPM) has changed the nature of political and administrative governance. The rise of the NPM will be one of the core themes of the course; you will benefit from taking care to learn what you can about the NPM as you complete Unit 1.
Learning Objectives
When you have completed Unit 1, you should be able to achieve the following learning objectives:
- Define and contrast political governance and administrative governance
- Define public policy and discuss the purpose and focus of policy studies
- Distinguish between public administration and private administration as fields of practice
- Comment on the relationship between public administration and policy studies as fields of study
- Outline the core organizational forms of the public bureaucracy and discuss the roles of key players and institutions in the political and permanent executive
- Offer some preliminary observations on the character of the NPM
