Art of the State

Why does public management - the art of the state - so often go wrong, producing failure and fiasco instead of public service? What are the different ways in which control or regulation can be applied to government? Why do we find contradictory recipes for the improvement of public services? Are the forces of modernity set to produce world-wide convergence in ways of organizing government? This important new study aims to explore such questions, central to currentdebates over public management. Combining contemporary and historical experience, it employs grid/group cultural theory as an organizing frame and method of exploration. Using examples from different places and eras, the study seeks to identify the recurring variety of ideas about how to organizepublic services. And contrary to widespread claims that modernization will bring a new global uniformity, it argues that variety is unlikely to disappear from doctrine and practice in public management.

clearly written, theoretically amibitious and interesting, historically sensitive and analytically sharp work based on exceptionally wide reading that has been intelligently absorbed and organised ... it is strongly to be recommended both to the specialist whose ideas are likely to be severely challenged by Hood's approach and to the general reader who wishes to acquire an understanding of ideas on ways of organising institutions in general and those of public management in particular, this well-written and very readable book on public management is rich with references to the ideas of past thinkers on the subject and to past practices of public management, a timely and important book, by one of Europe's most repected administrative scholars ... this text is tightly organized, well-written and thought provoking ... a clear, concise, comprehensive survey of major public management ideas, their strengths and weaknesses., This book demonstrates many of the numerous strengths of Christopher Hood's scholarship. He has a sharp analytic mind that categorizes and conceptualizes complex matters very effectively. The arguments here are advanced in a clear and convincing manner, and he is also sensitive to the nuances of both the theory and the evidence used to ramify the theoretical arguments ... this is absolutely a 'must read' for students of public administration. It should also be read by those scholars who easily dismiss the roots of public administration. B Guy Peters, Political Studies (1999) XLVII, "The book stands in the tradition of Hood's other work - intellectually virtuosic, speculative in argument, and lifting itself above the detail it addresses." Richard Parry, University of Edinburgh, Journal of Social Policy, May 2000