This updated classic on public administration highlights advances in the field
Since the publication of the first edition of Public Administration in 2010, this field has seen numerous advances in and augmentations to its logic of inquiry. While the foundational concepts examined in the book's first edition remain unchanged, Norma Riccucci has updated the book by adding a new preface and a substantive postscript discussing evolutions in the field over the last fifteen years.
Public Administration examines the intellectual origins and identity of the discipline, the debates surrounding its diverse research traditions, and how public administration research is conducted today. The book intends to engage scholars, graduate students, and professionals in a dialogue about heterogeneity in epistemic traditions, and to deepen the field's understanding and acceptance of its epistemological scope. This updated edition also addresses recent research, highlighting an expanding array of innovative practices, ontologies, epistemological perspectives, methods, and issues of race, gender, and ethnicity in public administration.
The original edition of the book was the winner of the best book award from the American Society for Public Administration's Section on Public Administration Research. This updated classic provides a concise overview of the discipline for graduate students and scholars.
Public Management and Change Series
Reviews
"Reading Dr. Riccucci's second edition of this book, I thought of Goethe's proverb: In der Beschränkung zeigt sich der Meister. She is a master in her craft. She traces developments in the study in the past fifteen years with great flair and clarity. What a treat."—Jos C. N. Raadschelders, professor, John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University, and coeditor in chief, Public Administration Review
"One of our field's finest scholars examines how public administration grapples with questions of science and the construction of knowledge? Compelling. Norma Riccucci explores what broad-based pluralism means (and what it should mean) for the field? Essential! Anyone studying the contemporary administrative state should read this book."—Anthony Beretelli, Sherwin-Whitmore Professor of Public Policy, Pennsylvania State University
"An essential guide to research in public administration, this edition inspires both new and returning readers. It meets the institutional, technological, and social transformations of our time with courage, integrity, and openness—a work that invites reflection on what it means to serve the res publica through scholarship."—Valentina Mele, associate professor of social and political science, Bocconi University
About the Author
Norma M. Riccucci is Board of Governors Distinguished Professor at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University, Newark. She is the author of How Management Matters: Street-Level Bureaucrats and Welfare Reform (2005), winner of the Herbert Simon Book Award; and of Critical Race Theory: Exploring Its Application to Public Administration (2022).
