Whereas students of comparative administration realize what is changing in this transitional mode, they are not certain of what is emerging as the new global system. The change, however, is creating new opportunities while imposing formidable challenges for public administration. One such challenge is the trend toward allocating a greater role for the private sector in national development, which has shifted the responsibility of public administration from managing to facilitating economic activity (Kaboolian1998; Pallot 1996). What is implied here is more than a need for “entrepreneurial qualities.” The public administration literature is full of propositions offering alternatives to the often-denounced traditional system of administration (bureaucracy). Space does not permit a full examination of these alternatives, but the New Public Management movement is representative. These alternatives, intended or not, are simply grounded in instrumental rationality, which ultimately would erode fundamental values— indeed, the foundations—of representative gover-nance. As Larry D. Terry, correctly points out, “public entrepreneurs if the neo-managerialist persuasion pose a threat to democratic governance” (1998, 194).Certainly, one cannot neglect current global conditions that require particular institutional capacities in managing public affairs. Within the new context, however, there is a growing emphasis on improving the prevalent administrative knowledge, skills, and attitudes, not supplanting them with alternative notions often described as “more than a little vague” (Considine and Lewis 2003, 133) and as difficult to define. Public administration education is properly
responding to distinct demands for managerial leadership and expertise, particularly in such areas as negotiations, mediation, sensitivity to human rights and diversity, managing conflict, contracting, and problemsolving techniques, beyond the usual, traditional public service activities. At the same time, considerable adjustments are under way to handle a growing emphasis on organizational culture that values results-oriented management. “Governments around the globe adopted management reforms to squeeze extra efficiency out of the public sector” (Kettl 1997, 446). Consequently, the managerial skills of flexibility, adaptability, cooperation, and creativity are in great demand. The point is that public administration, aware of the proclivities of its traditional settings to drift toward hierarchical command and control and to produce rule-driven rigidities, has invariably emphasized performance and, thus has elevated reform objectives to high priority. Moreover, globalism seems to have ushered in a growing emphasis on ethics, democratic governance, and accountability in managing the affairs of the state. An illustration of this growing pressure is the 2001 Anti-Corruption Symposium in Seoul, Korea, cosponsored by the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs and attended by many Asian and European countries. The purpose was to explore the links among anti-corruption initiatives, particularly transparency, accountability, and e-government. In the “Joint Statement of Cooperation” issued at the end of the symposium, participants promised to work together to promote these notions among member states of the United Nations. The final statement also declares that “governments and their administrations, no matter what level, have an obligation to the taxpayers to make transparent and facilitate the understanding of their decision-making processes.” The introduction of e-government is also regarded as an opportunity to better achieve transparency and accountability.2 To the same end, Gilman and Lewis (1996) point out that observable practice invalidates an approach to public service ethics that relies exclusively on cultural particularities. They conclude that “professional public administration must remain intellectually open to global dialogue on shared values, norms, and structures” (517). If so, comparative analysis is essential for exploring the implications of globalization (Farazmand 1999). And, “the art and science of global public administration can be advanced through increased comparative analysis of non-Western developing systems with the more developed Western administrative states” (Worthley and Tsao 1999, 571). Thus, globalization has altered the context of public administration and necessitated a reexamination of many of its premises and tenets. A government that attempts to successfully implement its public policies in the global context has to apply information, use new technologies, recruit and develop the required managerial leadership, and build overall administrative competence and integrity. According to a study by the U.N. Public Administration Program, the relevant competencies of the manager of the future include integrity, vision and leadership, capacity for policy analysis, and the judgment and capacity for decision making, people empowerment, managing performance, building trust, and accountability.3 Perhaps a lesson can be learned from business administration education. Business Week reported in 2002 that in France, Canada, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Britain, “global B-schools,” are impressive realities. One French global B-school, for example, epitomizes real diversity with a student population from 74 nationalities, “who have to leave many assumptions behind…. With no one culture dominant, ideas always get challenged—and sharpened.” It is this sort of cultural give and take that has propelled some of these global business schools to the top of Business Week’s rankings of MBA programs outside the United States.
Finally, in recent years, the failure of developing countries to attain sustainable development has reinforced skepticism about the role of administration in society, and it raises troubling questions about many assumptions that have failed to materialize. Poor performance by development institutions has been amply blamed. Many are looking into other governance-related factors to explain slow
progress, such as the absence of the rule of law and failure to democratize. Certainly, comparative information is needed to better understand how to influence and induce national development (Jain 2001). At the end, building institutional capacities and reforming governance are central pieces of any far-reaching societal change in developing countries (Esman 1991; Mavima and Chackerian 2002).