Christopher Pollitt, Advanced Introduction to Public Management and Administration, (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 192 pp. $23.80 (paper), ISBN: 9781784712334.

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12928
• Author: Simon Porcher
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Date: 01 March 2018

Book Reviews 321

Christopher Pollitt , Advanced Introduction to Public Management

and Administration , ( Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing , 2016 )

192 pp. $23.80 (paper), ISBN: 9781784712334 .

C hristopher Pollitt ’ s book is not only a clear

and succinct introduction to the theories of

public management and administration, the

methods used in the discipline, but also a description

of the academic community and the links between

scholars and the world of practice. Pollitt, emeritus

professor at the Public Governance Institute,

Leuven KU, is one of the leading authors in public

administration. You can feel, reading the pages of the

book, the decades of work in the field as a practitioner

and then as a scholar, giving the author the unique

capacity to address the book to a large and varied

audience. Pollitt offers a fascinating introduction to

public administration and management, how it can

be approached, why it is useful for practitioners, and

some scenarios on the evolution of the discipline.

The book can serve as a guide for advanced students

in the polymorphous field of public administration

with given paths for the future and a thoughtful

introduction to public administration for less

advanced students. The book is also of interest

for researchers in public administration who want

to nourish their reflections on the future of the

discipline.

The book starts with the overview of the differences

and similarities between public administration and

public management. Pollitt claims that there are

no significant differences between the two subjects

because they both use the same methods and academic

theories in fine . According to Pollitt, while public

administration is static and focuses on machinery of

government, public management is dynamic and deals

with managing resources, efficiency, and performance.

Public management was thus a “province” of public

administration for many years, but the idea that

public administrators have no interest in efficiency

and managing resources is now outdated. The

differences between public management and public

administration are rather stereotypical and there is

a rather unified discipline and community. Pollitt

then differentiates public management from private

management, using Hal Rainey ’ s ( 1997 ) work on

publicness. Public management is distinctive of

private management because of a range of factors,

such as the nature of the markets and the goods,

political influences and public scrutiny, public service

ethos, and fewer extrinsic incentives, which can lead

to “knavish” behaviors of public servants (Le Grand

1997 ). There is, of course, a full range of hybrid

sectors or activities in the public and private sectors

experiencing different levels of publicness.

Pollitt ends the first chapter with an interesting

question—“why study it?”—for prospective students

and researchers looking for arguments to explain,

during cocktails, why they did their full career in the

field. There are many reasons why one should study

public management such as improving public services

for citizens, implementing new powerful programs,

and improving ethics. I would add an intellectual

argument: in most countries, public administrations

have preceded large industries, and understanding

the functioning and the organization of public

administrations is usually a good way to understand

the different organizations of the firm, from one

country to another.

The second chapter describes some of the main

theories in public administration. Pollitt identifies

three “big name” theories: neo-institutionalism,

rational choice and principal-agent theory, and

governance theories. The descriptions of the theories

are rather brief but sophisticated. There are, however,

at least two drawbacks in the presentations of theories.

First, Pollitt could come up with some figures of

the number of papers published in the main public

administration and management reviews using the

“big name” theories he identifies. Indeed, one might

argue that some landmark theories are missing, such

as transaction cost economics or public choice, which

are used in an important literature in the discipline.

Second, Pollitt could have used a different approach

to present the main disciplines influencing research in

public administration and management. Researchers

in public management have naturally been picking

Reviewed by: Simon Porcher

Sorbonne Business School

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 78, Iss. 2, pp. 321–323. © 2018 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12928.

Simon Porcher is an associate professor

at Sorbonne Business School, IAE Paris,

France, where he is vice-director of the

Economics of Public-Private Partnerships

Chair. He is also the associate editor of

M@n@gement. His research covers public–

private contracting and the privatization of

public services such as water, sanitation,

and waste management.

E-mail: porcher.iae@univ-paris1.fr