Democratizing Public Management

This book argues that contemporary society in general, and public administration specifically, can benefit from more reflexive learning processes through democracy and public involvement. It identifies the most central social practices, dilemmas, and challenges for public management as well as the mechanisms needed to enact institutional change. Offering a model of reflexivity and learning in the face of public dispute, it explores phenomena such as problem solving, democratization, public learning, and uncertainty to address certain tensions in governance theory and practice.
Through a range of well-sourced case studies, this book demonstrates how institutions can manage difficult situations by not only resolving the conflict but addressing the underlying problem. It uses both theoretical and practical approaches to observe the micro foundations of political behavior and its institutional underpinnings, and will be a valuable resource for public administration researchers, practitioners, and graduate students seeking empirical studies of learning processes in the public sphere.

1. Practice-Oriented Reflection on Governance. - 2. Metagovernance, Governance, and Learning. - 3. Governance Learning from an Institutional Perspective. - 4. How Framing Transforms Governance: Public Dispute over the Closure of Three Small Schools in a Rural Community. - 5. Public Administration Leaders as Institutional Entrepreneurs: Dispute over the Location of a Marketplace. - 6. Institutionalization of Governance and the Transition from 'Fake' Learning to 'Real' Learning: Dispute over the Modernization of a Wastewater Treatment Plant and an Incineration Plant. - 7. Governance Failure and Social Trust: Dispute over Building a Flood Prevention System. - 8. Towards a Practice-Based Theory of Governance Learning and Institutionalization: A Cross-Case Analysis. - 9. Making Social Sciences Matter for Public Administration and Public Policy.