Editor's Introduction

• Author: Danny L. Balfour
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12871
• Published date: 01 November 2017
• Date: 01 November 2017

942 Public Administration Review • November | December 2017

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 6, pp. 942. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12871.

Book Review

Editor ’ s

Introduction

I n this, my last issue as book review editor for PAR ,

I pause to thank those with whom I have had the

privilege to work over the past two-and-a-half-years,

beginning with James L. Perry, who supported the

vision we had for the book review section and has

been an outstanding editor-in-chief for our field ’ s

flagship journal. He had the good sense to suggest that

Stephanie P. Newbold and I work together as book

review editors, and I really cannot imagine a better

partner for this endeavor. Even after she left to edit the

American Review of Public Administration, her imprint

remains in many of the reviews published in the past

year. Our work was greatly facilitated by Elise Boruvka,

logistical editor extraordinaire. Finally, thanks to so

many of our colleagues who wrote reviews, many of

whom are themselves contributions to the literature.

Several responded to specific requests that asked for

more than the typical book review and did so with the

utmost professionalism and scholarly rigor.

The books reviewed in this issue show the vitality

and relevance of current research in public

administration. A key part of our job as scholars of

public administration is to link research to practice,

and these works are all exemplars of that imperative:

reorganization, networks and governance, the

twenty-first century manager, the challenges facing

political appointees, Elinor Ostrom and the power of

interdisciplinary research, and Kaufmann ’ s recently

reissued classic on red tape. All of the reviewers

do a great job of evaluating each book in our

contemporary context along with implications for the

future of public administration and the society that

we serve.

Danny L. Balfour

Grand Valley State University