COURSE  SYLLABUS

 

GOALS

 

This is an introductory course in Public Administration.  The major goals are:

 

1.         To learn the basic vocabulary of the field of Public Administration.

2.         To gain an overview of the field of Public Administration and to learn about the major topic and issue areas in the field.

3.         To gain understanding of the process of learning itself, and the relationship between theory and practice.

4.         To begin to articulate the models and theories you use when making administrative decisions and to compare them to those of experts in the field. 

5.         To develop and improve analytic and written communication skills necessary for graduate education and the competent  practice of administration.

 

REQUIREMENTS

 

Grades will be available via Blackboard.  Note though the calculated points may not be accurate because Blackboard does not allow the flexibility needed to give completely accurate case study weightings.

 

Class Participation - Since this is a seminar, your participation is essential.  This grade is based on your contribution to our class discussions and our mailserv and Blackboard discussions.  Quality is more important than quantity.  A thoughtful question is more important than a simple answer.

Chapter Summary - You will write a brief (maximum 350 word/one page) summary of one of the chapters or articles we read for class.  The summary should include the author's purpose, major points, key arguments supporting those points, author's methodology, and your assessment of the chapter.  The chapter will be assigned the first week.  Due Week 2 (Sept 9)

 

Case Studies - The purpose of the case studies is to help understand how to use the models and theories to analyze actual situations.  You are encouraged to turn in four case studies.  Your best three will be counted towards your grade.  The format and detailed grading criteria for case studies will be distributed in class.  Due dates vary depending on which case you write.

 

Library/Internet Exercise - To be given out in class.  Due by Week 6. (Oct. 7)

 

Computer Mail - You are to send  me a mail message when your mailbox is in place and introduce yourself to the class on the PADM601 Mailserv and your Blackboard Homepage.  Due by Week 3. (September 18)  You may use a UAA or other computer mailbox for this.

 

Exams - Exams are intended to be learning devices.  They are also to give you experience in preparation for the comprehensive exam you must take as part of the MPA program.  They will be short answer and case studies for the most part.

 

Quizzes - Quizzes will be given periodically.  They are intended to encourage timely and careful reading of assignments and to give me feedback on your reading habits.  Grades will be T- (unsatisfactory), T (satisfactory), T+ (outstanding).  A T or T+ is required on four (4) quizzes to receive a grade of A.  There will be at least 6 quizzes.

 

Absences - After two absences you are required to turn in one additional chapter summary for each absence.  If you think you will miss more than 4 classes, I advise you to take the class as an audit.  If you must miss class, notify me as soon in advance as possible.  We can try to arrange to audio conference or tape the session.

 

READINGS

 

Required readings are either in the UAA library reserve room or in the following texts ordered for this class and available at the bookstore:

Robert Caro, 1974).  The Power Broker . New York: Vantage.  (While only selected parts of The Power Broker are listed in the syllabus, those parts will make much more sense if you read the whole book.)

 

Jay Shafritz and Albert Hyde (1992).  Classics in Public Administration,

Pacific Grove, California:  Brooks/Cole.

 

Robert B. Denhardt (2002).  Public Administration: An Action Orientation. 4th ed., Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace.

 

Harold Napoleon (1991).  Yuuyaraq: The Way of the Human Being. Fairbanks:  Center for Cross-Cultural Studies.

 

The following books have been ordered for this class as well; there are no assignments from these books, however students in the past have found them useful:

 

Chandler and Plano  (1988).  The Public Administration Dictionary, 2nd Ed. Santa Barbara: ABC CLIO. [Out of Print - Available on Reserve in the Library]

 

Brian R. Fry  (1989).  Mastering Public Administration:  From Max Weber to Dwight Waldo.  Chatham, NJ:  Chatham House Publishers.

 

Henriette Klauser, 1986).  Writing on Both Sides of the Brain. New York: Harper and Row.

 

Strunk and White, The Elements of Style (New York: MacMillan, latest edition)

 

The readings are roughly organized by issue areas.  Each area has a series of questions to be addressed.  The texts are only a starting point.  As graduate students, you are expected to pursue independent research.

 

The Field of Public Administration

 

1.         What is public administration (PA)?  What are the characteristics attributed to PA by each of the authors?

2.         How are the public and private sectors different?

3.         What does the public administration practitioner do?

4.         What skills do they need?

5.         What functions should government perform?

6.         What is the politics/administration debate about?

 

            Reading Assignment Week 1, August 26

            The Syllabus

 

Saturday – August 31: Optional Computer Session, 9:30am-11:30am BEB 216

                                                                                                                                   

September 2 NO CLASS - Labor Day

 

            Reading Assignment Week 2, September 9      

            a          Denhardt, Chapter 1

                        Caro, Chapters 3, 4, 5

a          Classics in Public Administration (CPA)  #1 Wilson, "The Study of PA"

a          Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, Chapter 2

a          Aufrecht, "Patterns of Tension:  A View of Public Administration", 1991                       

b          Lester M. Salamon, (1999)  “What is the Nonprofit Sector and Why Do We Have It?”  in J. Steven Ott, The Nature of the Nonprofit Sector.  Boulder, CO:  Westview Press

b          Steven Ott, (2001)  “Introduction to the Nonprofit Sector” in The Nature of the Nonprofit Sector.  Boulder, CO:  Westview Press pp. 1-8

b          Lane, Jan-Erik (2002) Government and the Economy: A Global Perspective; Chapter 1, “The Rules of the Market Game” , London: Continuum

c          Caiden, Public Administration, Chapter 1, “The Discipline of Public Administration”

c          David Rosenbloom, "Editorial:  Have an Administrative Rx?  Don't Forget the Politics!"  Public Administration Review.  Nov/Dec 1993

 

Ways of Knowing

 

1.         How do you know:       whether a desk will fit through a doorway?

                                                if you are doing your job efficiently?

                                                if you are doing your job effectively?

if we should tap the Permanent Fund to pay for government?

2.         How do experience, language, stereotypes, models, and theories affect what we know?

3.         What do you need to know to do your job better?

4.         What is a paradigm?

5.         What is the relationship between theory and reality?

6.         What part of reality can be measured?  What part cannot?

 

 

 

Reading Assignment Week 3, September 18 ****WEDNESDAY****

            a          Caro, Chapters 6, 7, 8, 12, 28, 33, pp. 218-221

a          Aufrecht, "It's OK in Theory But...: Problems of Teaching Theory in Public Administration Classes"

a          Robert Denhardt, Theories of Public Organizations, Chapter 1 (note - this is not the textbook)

a          Karl Albrecht, Brain Power, Chapter 2, "Learning to Think More Effectively"

b          Bill Holm, Coming Home Crazy (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1990),  pp. 19-30

b          George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language"

            b          http://poynter.org/special/colorproject/index.html                       

            b          Oliver Sacks, Anthropologist on Mars, excerpt

c          Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Preface and Introduction

d          John Horgan, "The Structure of Thomas Kuhn" in The End of Science. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1996

 

 

Power and Authority

 

1.         Define power.

2.         How does Wrong distinguish between a base of power and a form of power?

3.         Using Wrong's definitions, list the various bases and forms of power found in the different readings and reconcile the differences.

4.         What is authority?  How does it relate to power?

5.         What types and sources of power do the various branches and levels of government have in relationship to each other?

6.         How was the structure of the U.S. Government affected by the “Founding Fathers” understanding of power?

7.         What are a bureaucrat's sources of power?  What are yours at work? in class?

8.         What power do citizens, elected officials, and top executives have to make bureaucracy effective and efficient?

 

Reading Assignment Week 4, September 23

a          Denhardt, Chapters 2, 3, and pp. 369-372 (NEW 382-385)(“Power...”,) 392-393 (NEW 404-405)(“Conflict...”)

a          Aufrecht, "Mapping Power," Public Administration Review (July/August    1985) pp. 533-537.

b          Gerth and Mills, From Max Weber (New York: Oxford University Press)    pp. 295-301.

                        Caro, pp. 218-220

b          Dennis Wrong, Power:  Its Forms and Bases. New York:  Harper Row, 1979, Chpt 2

 

            Reading Assignment Week 5, September 30

           

a          William F. Allman, "Nice Guys Finish First," Science 84, October

            a          The U.S. Constitution (not on reserve)

a          Stillman, Chapter 7, “The Future of the U.S. Bureaucratic System”

b    Steven Aufrecht, David Case, Kimberly Martus, “Indians 78, State of Washington 0: What American Public Administrators Need to Know about Native American Law” Paper Presented to Public Administration Theory Network Conference, March 1998, Colorado Springs

b          Denhardt, pp. 220-228 (NEW 229-236)(“...Labor Management Relations”)

Caro, Chapter 22, pp. 735-738           

c          Vaclav Havel, "The Power of the Powerless," in Havel, Open Letters, NY: Vintage Books, 1992

c          David Case, "The Federal Relationship to Alaska Natives" and "Sovereignty:  "The Alaskan Native Claim to Self-Government," in Case, Alaska Natives and American Law, Fairbanks:  University of Alaska Press, 1984