Abstract
The majority of the policy work of government is done through the organizations that constitute the public bureaucracy . Even when administrative organizations act as agents for political leaders, rather than making policy on their own, they play a number of important roles in making policy and in making policies perform as intended by the actors who designed them. Policy capacity can be found in almost any public bureaucracy, but a variety of factors influence the capacity for public administration to shape public policy. This chapter discusses the policy tasks of bureaucracies and their “policy work” (Working for policy, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2010) from the perspective of the organizational and structural characteristics of these institutions. The chapter also explores the different contexts in which bureaucratic organizations operate and discusses alternative patterns of policy roles for bureaucracies based on their own capacities and the capacities of other actors in the policymaking process.
Reprinted from Policy and Society, 34(3–4), B. Guy Peters, Policy capacity in public administration, 219–228, 2015, with permission from Elsevier.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Béland, D., & Cox, R. H. (2011). Ideas and politics in social science research. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Blais, A., & Dion, S. (1991). The budget-maximizing bureaucrat: Appraisals and evidence. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Bouckaert, G., Peters, B. G., & Verhoest, K. (2010). The coordination of public sector organizations: Shifting patterns of public management. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.
Brehm, J., & Gates, S. (1997). Working, shirking and sabotage: Bureaucratic responses to a democratic public. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Carter, P. (2012). Policy as palimpset. Policy & Politics, 40, 423–443.
Colebatch, H. K., Hoppe, R., & Noordegraaf, M. (2010). Working for policy. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Dalström, C., Peters, B. G., & Pierre, J. (2011). Steering from the centre: Strengthening political control in western democracies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
DiIulio, J. J. (1994). Deregulating government: Can government be improved? Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
Döring, H., & Hallerberg, M. (2004). Patterns of parliamentary behavior. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Drutman, L., & Teles, S. (2015, March). Why Congress relies on lobbyists rather than thinking for itself. The Atlantic.
Fleischer, J. (2011). Steering from the German centre: More policy coordination with fewer policy initiatives. In C. Dahlström, B. G. Peters, & J. Pierre (Eds.), Steering from the centre: Strengthening political control in western democracies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Gleeson, D., Lodge, D., O’Neil, D., & Pfeffer, M. (2011). Negotiating tensions in developing organizational policy capacity: Comparative lessons to be drawn. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and Theory, 13, 237–263.
Gofen, A. (2014). Mind the gap: Dimensions and influence of street-level divergence. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 24, 473–493.
Goodsell, C. T. (2011). Mission mystique: Belief systems in public agencies. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Grindle, M. S. (2011). Jobs for the boys: Patronage and the state in comparative perspective. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hood, C. (1976). The limits of administration. New York: Wiley.
Hood, C. (2011). The blame game: Spin, bureaucracy and self-preservation in government. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Howlett, M. (2009). Policy analytic capacity and evidence-based policymaking: Lessons from Canada. Canadian Public Administration, 52, 153–175.
Howlett, M., & Wellstead, A. (2011). Policy analysts in the bureaucracy: The nature of professional policy work in contemporary government. Policy & Politics, 39, 613–633.
Jacobs, A. M. (2011). Governing for the long term: Democracy and the politics of investment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kerwin, C. M. (2011). Rule-making: How government agencies write law and make policy (4th ed.). Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Lewis, D. E. (2011). Presidential appointments and personnel. Annual Review of Political Science, 14, 47–66.
Migdal, J. S. (1988). Strong societies and weak states. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Neuhold, C., Vanhoonacker, S., & Verhey, L. (2012). Civil servants and politics: A delicate balance. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Page, E. C. (2012). Policy without politicians: Bureaucratic influence in comparative perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Page, E. C., & Jenkins, B. (2005). Policy bureaucracy: Government with a cast of thousands. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Painter, M., & Pierre, J. (2010). Unpacking policy capacity: Themes and issues. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Peters, B. G. (1992). Bureaucratic politics and the institutions of the European community. In A. M. Sbragia (Ed.), Euro-politics. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
Peters, B. G. (2005). The politics of bureaucracy (6th ed.). New York: Routledge.
Peters, B. G. (2015). Pursuing horizontal management: The politics of public sector coordination. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
Peters, B. G., & Pierre, J. (2004). Politicization of the civil service in comparative perspective: The quest for control. New York: Routledge.
Poguntke, T., & Webb, P. (2007). Presidentialization of politics: A comparative study of modern democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pollitt, C. (2003). Joined-up government: A survey. Political Studies Review, 1, 34–49.
Pollitt, C. (2014). Context in public policy and management: The missing link? Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Polsby, N. W. (1975). Legislatures. In F. I. Greenstein & N. W. Polsby (Eds.), Handbook of political science (Vol. 5). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Rhinard, M. (2010). Framing Europe: The policy making strategies of the European commission. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff.
Roness, P. G. (2009). Handling theoretical diversity on agency autonomy in change and continuity in public sector organizations: Essays in Honor of Per Laegreid, 45–62. Bergen: Fakbokforlaget.
Rose, R. (1976). The problem of party government. London: Macmillan.
Rubin, I. (2013). The politics of public budgeting: Getting and spending, borrowing and balancing. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Salamon, L. M. (1981). The goals of reorganization. In P. Szanton (Ed.), Federal reorganization: What have we learned? Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.
Savoie, D. J. (1994). Reagan, Thatcher, Mulroney: In search of a new bureaucracy. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Savoie, D. J. (2008). Court government and the collapse of accountability in Canada and the United Kingdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thompson, V. (1961). Modern organizations. New York: Knopf.
Torfing, J., Peters, B. G., Pierre, J., & Sørensen, E. (2012). Interactive governance: Advancing the paradigm. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vesely, A. (2013). Externalization of policy advice: Theory, methodology and evidence. Policy and Society, 32, 199–209.
Van Thiel, S., & Leeuw, F. L. (2002). The performance paradox in the public sector. Public Performance and Management Review, 25, 267–281.
Wilensky, H. (1967). Organizational intelligence: Knowledge and policy in government and industry. New York: Basic Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Guy Peters, B. (2018). Policy Capacity in Public Administration. In: Wu, X., Howlett, M., Ramesh, M. (eds) Policy Capacity and Governance. Studies in the Political Economy of Public Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54675-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54675-9_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-54674-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-54675-9
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)