Improving Governance: A New Logic for Empirical Research / Edition 1

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

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780878403851
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Publication date:	08/10/2002
Series:	American Governance and Public Policy Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

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.

Table of Contents

Preface

About the Authors

List of Tables and Features

1. Governance in a Democracy What is Governance?Complications of Governance ResearchPurposes of this BookLimits to GovernanceA CaveatNotes

2. A Logic for Governance Research Challenges for Governance ResearchThe Logic of Market GovernancePublic-Sector Governance: An Institutional ViewLevels of GovernanceNotes

3. Institutional Governance Legal IdealismPolitical EconomyThe New InstitutionalismNotes

4. Organizational and Technical Governance The Organizational (Managerial) LevelThe Technical (Primary Work) LevelNotes

5. Designing Research: Applying a Logic of Governance Questions and IssuesA Reduced-Form ModelSummaryNotes

6. Designing Reseach: Models, Methods, and Data Identifying a Literature of GovernanceCritiquing a Literature of GovernanceSummaryNotes

7. Governance Research: Scholarly Applications Governance Research in Three Policy DomainsMore Extensive Reviews of Individual Governance StudiesConlcuding CommentNotes

8. Governance: Research and Practice The Nature of ResearchThe Nature of PracticeEnlightening Practice: Utilizing a LogicEnlightening Practice: ProspectsConclusionNotes

References

Names Index

Subject Index

Editorial Reviews

Provides insights that come from practical experiences and research disappointments. Improving Governance is a valuable book for those who undertake organizational and policy research and for those desiring to do so.

American Political Science Review

"Provides insights that come from practical experiences and research disappointments. Improving Governance is a valuable book for those who undertake organizational and policy research and for those desiring to do so."—American Political Science Review

From the Publisher

In a companion to the volume of proceedings (2000), Lynn (public management, U. of Chicago), Carolyn J. Jeinrich (public policy analysis, U. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), and Carolyn J. Hill (Northwestern U./U. of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research) expand the framing paper for the conference. They propose a logic for the systematic and empirical study of governance and public management, using quantitative and qualitative methods. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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