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Public Administration and Public Management Research in Europe: Traditions and Trends

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The Palgrave Handbook of Public Administration and Management in Europe

Abstract

The chapter reviews the evolution of the state of the art of research in public administration and management in Europe since WWII. It argues that a pan-European community has developed, flanking and in many respects integrating the distinct national communities that characterised the field till the 1970s/1980s. After a bibliographical review of the main themes that catalyse the interest of PA scholars, it focuses on the most researched theme in Europe, namely public management reform. The ways in which the topic has been studied before, during and after the NPM ideological wave are examined by looking into country clusters across Europe: Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, Southern European, Nordic European, and Central-Eastern European. Concluding points include the theoretical importance of context in European research, and the profile of the European scholar.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Christopher Pollitt for a ‘critical friend’ review of a previous version of this chapter, which has greatly helped improve it. They are also grateful to Muiris MacCartaigh and Turo Virtanen for contributions notably on the cases of Ireland and Finland, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

    Edoardo Ongaro

  2. Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Sandra van Thiel

  3. University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    Andrew Massey

  4. University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Jon Pierre

  5. Humboldt Universität, Berlin, Germany

    Hellmut Wollmann

Authors
  1. Edoardo Ongaro
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  2. Sandra van Thiel
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  3. Andrew Massey
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  4. Jon Pierre
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  5. Hellmut Wollmann
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Correspondence to Sandra van Thiel .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department for Public Leadership and Social Enterprise—PulSE Faculty of Business and Law , The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

    Edoardo Ongaro

  2. Institute for Management Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Sandra Van Thiel

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Ongaro, E., van Thiel, S., Massey, A., Pierre, J., Wollmann, H. (2018). Public Administration and Public Management Research in Europe: Traditions and Trends. In: Ongaro, E., Van Thiel, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Public Administration and Management in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55269-3_2

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