Philosophy and Public Administration

Edoardo Ongaro, Professor of Public Management, The Open University, UK

‘Overall with such directions for future PA work, this book as an exceptionally intelligent and unusually readable feat is bound to become a classic entry point for readers new to the topics of whether and how philosophy has illuminated the intellectual space of PA. Readers should expect not to just read and understand it but to be “in” it too.’>

• Contents: Foreword by Geert Bouckaert Acknowledgements 1 Introduction and rationale 2 Key streams in philosophical inquiry: a selection and succinct overview for the field of public administration – Part I 3 Key streams in philosophical inquiry: a selection and succinct overview for the field of public administration – Part II 4 Ontological perspectives and Public public administration doctrines and themes revisited from a philosophical perspective 5 Political philosophy and public governance: the quest for justification in ‘common good’ and in ‘social contract’ arguments and their significance for the debate on the organisation of the public sector 6 Epistemological perspectives and the study of public administration 7 Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas More: on virtues, realism and utopian thinking in public administration 8 Utopias, ideal-types, paradigms, models and ‘good practices: Repertoire of conceptual tools for public administration? 9 Elements (fragments) for the philosophical foundation of a theory of public administration 10 The search for consistencyResearching and teaching philosophy for public administration Postscript to the second edition: philosophy in and of Public Administration Today, global-Western and non-Western by Wolfgang DrechslerPostscript: philosophy in and of Public Administration Today by Wolfgang Drechsler References Index