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Mini-symposium on `Towards a New Public Administration theory'

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorChristopher Pollitt
Published date01 March 2007
Date01 March 2007
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/0020852307075685
Subject MatterArticles
/tmp/tmp-18K0kpO6nrJ153/input International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Mini-symposium on ‘Towards a New Public Administration
theory’: Editor’s Introduction
Christopher Pollitt
We are delighted to be able to commence this issue of IRAS with the 2006 Braibant
Lecture by Jocelyne Bourgon. Jocelyne is well known nationally and internationally as
an enormously experienced top public servant who has somehow managed to stay
in close touch with the academic world. Thus when she issues a challenge — as she
does here — both academics and practitioners would do well to listen. To try to
ensure that this challenge engages more than just those fortunate enough to have
been in the audience for the Braibant Lecture, we have invited a number of people
to write in response to Jocelyne’s arguments. In this issue you will also find the first
fruits of this process, a mini-symposium consisting of three sets of reactions to the
original lecture. The first two are by practitioners, Marcel Pochard of the French
Conseil d’Etat and Jeremy Lonsdale of the UK National Audit Office. The third com-
prises my own comments on the Bourgon text.
This is, therefore, an attempt to initiate a dialogue between the sometimes
separated worlds of public administration academics and senior practitioners. And
that was precisely what Jocelyne Bourgon intended. As her title indicated, the project
she proposed was no less than a new synthesis — a theory of public administration
that could serve the rapidly changing circumstances of the 21st century. She began
by identifying a series of issues which have challenged the traditional model, and
which are not by any means entirely addressed by the New Public Management
either. She then set out some building blocks for a new synthesis and, finally,
suggested some key factors and...

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