Rezension: Ladner, Andreas & Sager, Fritz (Eds.) (2022): Handbook on the Politics of Public Administration

Abstract

The relationship between politics and administration is a classic theme of public administration, while it has been rather ignored in political science. The handbook provides an excellent overview of their interdependencies. It is useful both as a reference to inform oneself quickly and reliably about their relationship in all kinds of fields (and countries, from the US over Russia, China, Japan to Mexico etc.) but it should be particularly valuable as a supplementary textbook, especially in the wake of the (New) Public Management fashion, which often thrived on simple, not to say naive, ideas of the separation of politics and administration. Whether one is interested in e. g. bureaucracy, decentralization, new public governance, administrative reform, implementation, evaluation, regulation, administrative law, international administration, evidence-based policy making, performance management, staffing, accountability or digitalization, one finds short, concise contributions that clarify the political dimensions in these areas, which otherwise are often treated rather technocratically.