Management Without Managers: The False Promise of Administrative Reform

Following a review of the American Experience with administrative reform in the federal government, concentrating on reforms since the 1960s, the American approach to public administration is compared to that of France. The two nations appear to have quite dissimilar administrative cultures if culture is defined as an unalterable set of norms and values which ultimately determine behavior. However, both French and American scholarship is evolving toward a definition of administrative culture - a capacity acquired, used, and transformed by individuals in the course of establishing and conducting their relations with others - which views administrative relations as inherently conflictual and understandable by applying basic concepts such as collective action, games, uncertainty, and power. Following this avenue of research should facilitate interdisciplinary and comparative analysis of international experiences with administrative reform.