Books in the Rethinking Public Administration series

This classic book by Sir Geoffrey Vickers first published 30 years ago speaks to both the student/academic and the practitioner interested in understanding decision-making in organizational settings. As the biographical essay elucidates, Vickers' ideas arose from his rich and multifaceted career as a practitioner. His work provides for the integration of theory and practice that is without parallel anywhere in the literature.Written in a lively and accessible style The Art of Judgment continues to be a seminal work for scholars seeking to develop an interpretive and critical account of management and organization. This work is a study which transcends both a narrow and scientific view of administrative behaviour and lays the groundwork for a view of management thought and action grounded in the world of human experience.

This volume faces the challenge of the 21st century in this masterly analysis of the legitimate options open to public administration in a democratic society. Against a background of globalization of markets, increased prejudice, and racial and ethnic violence, the author demonstrates the centrality of administrative legitimacy to a 21st century that is an improvement over the 20th.

Guy Adams and Danny Balfour maintain that administrative evil, or destructiveness, is inherent in modern public administration. The authors go beyond a critique of public administration to lay the groundwork for a more effective and humane public administration.