Call for Articles:
Special Issue of Public Administration Review on
The Future of Public Administration in 2020
Edited by Rosemary O'Leary and David Van Slyke
The Maxwell School of Syracuse University
We invite articles for a special issue of Public Administration Review on "The Future of Public Administration in 2020." Specifically, we seek articles in two areas:
Part One: Future Search
Based on submitted abstracts, ten authors – a mix of academics and practitioners with different areas of expertise (e.g., management, bureaucratic politics, law, public finance, public participation) - will be chosen to write original essays envisioning public administration in 2020. Authors will come from the public (local, state, and federal), nonprofit, and academic worlds. Your instructions: You are not inhibited by cost or difficulty. Imagine and describe the field of public administration in the year 2020. What you envision must be desirable, feasible, and motivating (you want to make it happen). What do you see? What do we need to make this happen? What are the barriers to making this happen?
Examples of important questions include, but are not limited to :
· How can we keep and attract the best and brightest in our public service at all levels?
· Who are we? What does it mean to be a citizen of the 21st century? What are citizen's rights and responsibilities in the modern administrative state?
· As contracting out continues to grow throughout all levels of U.S. government, how can 3rd party government be held to public standards of accountability?
· How can government obtain and use better science, information technology, and policy information in the years ahead?
· What should be the role of the military after Iraq? How can defense policy be managed and held accountable to civil control?
· What is the most appropriate route to repair and upgrade U.S. infrastructure needs?
· What is the best way to administer foreign aid and development?
· Can we fix fiscal/monetary policy making?
· How can federal regulatory management keep up with innovations in the market place?
· Under what conditions does collaborative public management work best? Should public organizations be encouraged to collaborate more?
· How can we make public administration and management research more helpful and relevant to practitioners?
· Is data destiny? Should it be?
· Other?
Part Two: How Do We Get There?
Based on submitted abstracts, ten additional articles will be selected for this section which will feature original research with serious well reasoned commentary on the utility and further potential of strategic planning/strategic management approaches in government around the world. Articles will move beyond visions for the future and talk about the strengths, limitations, and future potential of our strategic planning/management systems in strengthening and improving governance.
For example, we have seen the evolution in strategic planning/management systems at the federal level from the Government Performance and Results Act to the Program Assessment Rating Tool. We have seen increases in agencies developing strategic plans and linking them to performance measurement, management, and monitoring systems. We've seen further development and implementation of strategic planning and performance systems being integrated and linked to resource allocation, budgeting, and institutional accountability systems. There is a proliferation of frameworks and models from conventional planning processes such as Bryson's Ten-Step Strategy Change Cycle to increasingly using a Balanced Scorecard Approach as a complement, not a substitute, to traditional processes. There are other manifestations of these integrated systems and processes including the incorporation of quality management systems such as Lean Six Sigma, citizen involvement processes as part of both the SWOT analysis of strategic planning, to engagement at different levels (both within organizations and communities) of citizens in the development of performance measurement and monitoring systems. One can look at agencies and municipalities that use extensive performance information as part of their "STAT" (e.g., CompStat, CitiState) systems to make government more transparent and accountable.
For government and nonprofit organizations, strategic planning/ management systems are opportunities to think and act strategically, educate, and build ownership within their organizations and with myriad stakeholders for the purpose of improving performance, better serving the public, and planning for the future. There has been a lack of systematic thinking, however, analyzing the degree to which government and governance have changed, or might change in the future, as a result of these institutionalized systems, processes, and tools. Are these tools the right tools for government to integrate and use in the work of governance? What modifications need to be made to these tools, the organizations in which they are used, or education and training that public personnel and network actors receive in order to achieve the myriad goals of government programs, such as effectiveness, efficiency, etc.? Are there new tools that facilitate strategic thinking and action but which government and/or other sectors have yet to adopt?
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Please email a two page abstract of your article idea for either Part One or Part Two to Rosemary O'Leary ( roleary@maxwell.syr.ed ) AND David Van Slyke ( vanslyke@maxwell.syr.edu ) at by March 1, 2009.
From the abstracts, authors will be invited to submit full length articles due by October 5, 2009. All articles will be blind peer reviewed by three referees. The peer review process will determine needed article revisions as well as the final selection of articles for the special issue.
This special issue of PAR is funded by Maxwell alumnus Howard Phanstiel through the Phanstiel Chair in Strategic Management and Leadership. Questions? Please contact Rosemary or David.
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Rosemary O'Leary
Distinguished Professor
Phanstiel Endowed Chair
Co-Director, Collaborative Governance Initiative
The Maxwell School of Syracuse University
400 Eggers Hall
Syracuse, New York 13244-1090
315-443-4991
http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/oleary/
Recent books:
The Collaborative Public Manager , Georgetown University Press (2009)
Big Ideas in Collaborative Public Management , M.E.Sharpe(2008).
The Ethics of Dissent: Managing Guerrilla Government . Congressional Quarterly (2006 ).