Improving Governance: A New Logic for Empirical Research (American Governance and Public Policy series) - Softcover

Lynn Jr., Laurence E.; Heinrich, Carolyn J.; Hill, Carolyn J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 087840385X ISBN 13: 9780878403851

Publisher: Georgetown University Press, 2002

Synopsis

Policymakers and public managers around the world have become preoccupied with the question of how their goals can be achieved in a way that rebuilds public confidence in government. Yet because public policies and programs increasingly are being administered through a complicated web of jurisdictions, agencies, and public-private partnerships, evaluating their effectiveness is more difficult than in the past. Though social scientists possess insightful theories and powerful methods for conducting empirical research on governance and public management, their work is too often fragmented and irrelevant to the specific tasks faced by legislators, administrators, and managers. Proposing a framework for research based on the premise that any particular governance arrangement is embedded in a wider social, fiscal, and political context, Laurence E. Lynn, Jr., Carolyn J. Heinrich, and Carolyn J. Hill argue that theory-based empirical research, when well conceived and executed, can be a primary source of fundamental, durable knowledge about governance and policy management. Focusing on complex human services such as public assistance, child protection, and public education, they construct an integrative, multilevel "logic of governance," that can help researchers increase the sophistication, power, and relevance of their work.

About this title

About the Author

Laurence E. Lynn, Jr., is Sydney Stein Jr. Professor of Public Management at the University of Chicago. Carolyn J. Heinrich is an assistant professor of public policy analysis at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Together they coedited Governance and Performance: New Perspectives (Georgetown, 2000). Carolyn J. Hill is assistant professor in the Georgetown Public Policy Institute at Georgetown University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Georgetown University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 087840385X
• ISBN 13: 9780878403851
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224