Public Sector Management

This course is available for on-campus & remote (online) learning. All students participate in interactive, real-time classes. How is the public sector managed? This course introduces students to key trends and debates in public sector management from a critical and comparative perspective. All countries in the modern world have systems of government that include permanent administrative organisations (departments or agencies) whose task it is to carry out the various functions of government, typically under the direction of political leaders and supervised by legislatures and courts. Although institutions of government administration are found everywhere, their formal structures and methods of operation have varied significantly over time and from country to country. This course takes a comparative and thematic approach to issues in public sector management and encourages students to consider their relevance to their own countries and workplaces. The course gives particular emphasis to issues of public sector reform and draws on cutting-edge research by academic staff at the Crawford School. In addition, the course identifies the different constitutional traditions within which systems of public administration are located, as well as the different administrative challenges faced by countries at different stages of political and economic development.