Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wbk2r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-09T13:25:15.891Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Structure and Organization of Government: Concepts and Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

B. Guy Peters
B. Guy Peters
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The most basic question about the structure and organization of government is Why we should be concerned about this question at all?' Many of us trained in political science programs during the behavioral revolution were taught to believe that the structures of government were insignificant as a focus for research. The structures ofgovernment became encapsulated in an opaque black box; that part of the political system where decisions were made. Fortunately, this view no longer prevails and there is increasing interest in structural questions, in part generated by the increasing interest in the state as a focus for political inquiry (Dyson, 1980; Benjamin and Elkin, 1985). Much of the work on the state as yet, however, leaves that concept largely undifferentiated and has not dealt systematically with the structure of the state apparatus. Thus, concern for the development of state theory, as well as the concerns of those interested in public policy, has returned structural questions to a more central position in political science.

Type
Review Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , February 1985 , pp. 107 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aberbach, J. D. and Rockman, B. A. 1984 ‘Political and Bureaucratic Roles in Public Service Reorganization.’ IPSA Study Group Conference on the Structure and Organization of Government, University of Manchester, Manchester, England.Google Scholar
Aldrich, H. E. (1979) Organizations and Environments. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Anderson, W. (1945) Units of Government in the United States. Chicago: Public Administration Service.Google Scholar
Barker, A. (1982) Quangos in Britain. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Benjamin, R. and Elkin, S. L. eds., (1985) The Democratic State. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Benjamin, R. and Duvall, R. (1985) The Capitalist State in Context, in Benjamin and Elkin (eds.), The Democratic State.Google Scholar
Blondel, J. (1982) The Organization of Governments: A Comparative Analysis of Governmental Structures. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Braybrooke, D. and Lindblom, C. E. (1963) A Strategy of Decision. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Caiden, G. (1970) Administrative Reorganization. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Campbell, C. and Szablowski, G. (1979) The Superbureaucrats: Structure and Behaviour in Central Agencies. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada.Google Scholar
Chester, D. W. and Willson, F. M. G. (1968) The Organisation of British Central Government, 1914–1964, 2nd. ed. (London: George Allen and Unwin).Google Scholar
Cohen, M.D., March, J. G. and Olsen, J. P. (1972) The Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice, Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 1–25Google Scholar
Doerr, A. D. (1981) The Machinery of Government in Canada. Toronto: Methuen.Google Scholar
Duvall, R. and Freeman, J. R. (1981) The State and Dependent Capitalism, International Studies Quarterly, 25, 99–118Google Scholar
Duvall, R. and Freeman, J. R. (1983) The Techno-Bureaucratic Elite and the Entrepreneurial State in Dependent Industrialization, American Political Science Review, 77, 569–87.Google Scholar
Dyson, K. H. F. (1980). The State Tradition in Western Europe. Oxford: Martin Robertson.Google Scholar
Edwards, G. C. (1980) Implementing Public Policy. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Fesler, J. W. (1983) Politics, Policy and Bureaucracy at the Top, The Annals, 466, 23–41Google Scholar
Grafton, C. (1984) Response to Change: The Creation and Reorganization of Federal Agencies, in R. Miewald and M. Steinman, Problems in Administrative Reform. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.Google Scholar
Greenwood, R. and Hinings, C. R. (1976) Contingency Theories and Public Bureaucracies, Policy and Politics, 5, 159–80.Google Scholar
Greenwood, R., Hinings, C. R. and Ranson, S. (1975a) Contingency Theory and the Organization of Local Authorities I: Differentiation and Integration, Public Administration, 53, 1–23Google Scholar
Greenwood, R., Hinings, C. R. and Ranson, S. (1975b) Contingency Theory and the Organization of Local Authorities II: Contingencies and Structures, Public Administration, 53, 169–90.Google Scholar
Hague, D. C, Mackenzie, W. J. M. and Barker, A. (1975) Public Policy and Private Interests. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hall, P. A. (1983) Policy Innovation and the Structure of the State: The Politics-Administration Nexus in France and Britain, The Annals, 466, 43–60Google Scholar
Hanf, K. (1982) Regulatory Structures: Enforcement as Implementation, European Journal of Political Research, 10, 159–72.Google Scholar
Hannan, M. and Freeman, J. (1977) The Population Ecology Model of Organizations, American Journal of Sociology, 82, 929–64.Google Scholar
Harmon, M. (1980) Action Theory for Public Administration. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Heisler, M. O. (1979) Corporate Pluralism Revisited: Where is the Theory?, Scandinavian Political Studies, 2, 277–97.Google Scholar
Hjern, B. and Porter, D. O. (1981) Implementation Structures: A New Unit of Administrative Analysis, Organization Studies, 2, 211–27.Google Scholar
Hjern, B. and Hull, C. (1982) Implementation Research as Empirical Constitutionalism, European Journal of Political Research, 10, 105–15.Google Scholar
Hood, C. (1976) The Limits of Administration. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Hood, C. (1978) Keeping the Centre Small: Explaining Agency Type, Political Studies, 26, 30–46Google Scholar
Hood, C. (1979) The Machinery of Government Problem, Studies in Public Policy, No. 28 (Glasgow: Centre for the Study of Public Policy, University of Strathclyde).Google Scholar
Hood, C. and Dunsire, A. (1981) Bureaumetrics. Farnborough, Hants: GowerGoogle Scholar
Jackson, P. M. (1982) The Political Economy of Bureaucracy. Oxford: Philip Allan.Google Scholar
Kaplan, A. (1964) The Conduct of Inquiry. San Francisco: Chandler.Google Scholar
Kaufman, H. and Seidman, D. (1970) The Morphology of Organizations, Administrative Science Quarterly, 15, 439–51.Google Scholar
Kimberly, J. (1976) Issues in the Design of Longitudinal Organizational Research, Sociological Methods and Research, 4, 321–47.Google Scholar
King, A. (1975) Overload: Problems of Governing in the 1970s, Political Studies, 23, 284–296Google Scholar
Kochen, M. and Deutsch, K. W. (1980) Decentralizatioan: Sketches Toward a Rational Theory. Cambridge, MA: Oelgeshlager, Gunn & Hain.Google Scholar
Levine, Charles H. (1978) Organizational Decline and Cutback Management, Public Administration Review, 38, 316–25.Google Scholar
Lehmbruch, G. and Schmitter, P. (1982) Patterns of Corporatist Policymaking. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Lijphart, A. (1968) Typologies of Democratic Systems, Comparative Political Studies, 1, 3–44Google Scholar
Lijphart, A. (1977) Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Lijphart, A. (1984) Democracies: Patterns of Majoritarian and Consensus Government in Twenty-One Countries. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Lipsky, M. (1980) Street-Level Bureaucracy. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
March, J. G. and Olsen, J. P. (1983) Organizing Political Life: What Administrative Reorganization Tells Us About Government, American Political Science Review, 77, 281–96.Google Scholar
March, J. G. and Olsen, J. P. (1984) The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life, American Political Science Review, 78, 734–49.Google Scholar
Marschak, J. (1955) Elements of a Theory of Teams, Management Science, 1, 127–37.Google Scholar
Merton, R. K. (1940) The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action, American Sociological Review, 1, 894–904Google Scholar
Miliband, R. (1969) The State in Capitalist Society. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Mitnick, B. (1980) The Political Economy of Regulation. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Moe, T. M. (1984) The New Economics of Organizations, American Journal of Political Science, 28, 739–77.Google Scholar
Niskanen, W. (1971) Bureaucracy and Representative Government. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Nordlinger, E. A. (1980) On the Autonomy of the Democratic State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Offe, C. (1984) Contradiction of the Welfare State. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Peters, B. G. (1984) The Politics of Bureaucracy, 2nd. ed.New York: Longmans.Google Scholar
Peters, B. G. (1981) The Problem of Bureaucratic Government, Journal of Politics, 43, 56–82Google Scholar
Peters, B. G., Doughtie, J. C., and McCulloch, M. K. (1977) Types of Democratic Systems and Types of Public Policy, Comparative Politics, 9, 327–55.Google Scholar
Peters, B. G. and Heisler, M. O. (1983) Thinking About Public Sector Growth: Operational, Theoretical and Policy Considerations, in Taylor, C. L. (ed.) Why Governments Grow: Measuring Public Sector Size. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Peters, B. G. and Hogwood, B. W. (forthcoming) The Changing Face of the Washington Bureaucracy.Google Scholar
Pitt, D. C. and Smith, B. C. (1981) Government Departments: An Organizational Perspective. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Pollitt, C. (1984) Manipulating the Machine: Changing the Pattern of Ministerial Departments, 1960–83 London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Radner, R. (1962) Team Decision Problems, Annals of Mathematics and Statistics, 33, 857–81.Google Scholar
Rainey, H. G. (1984) Organization Theory and Political Science: Organizational Typologies, Political Variables and Policy Studies, Policy Studies Journal, 13, 5–22Google Scholar
Rockman, Bert (1984) Scarcity and the Analytic Capacity of Government. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh, mimeo.Google Scholar
Rose, R. (1974) The Problem of Party Government. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Rose, R. (1975) Overloaded Government: The Problem Outlined, European Studies Newsletter, 5, 13–18Google Scholar
Rose, R. (1980) Government Against Sub-Governments: A European Perspective on Washington, in R. Rose and Suleiman, E. (eds.), Presidents and Prime Ministers. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.Google Scholar
Rose, R. (1984) Understanding Big Government: The Programme Approach. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Schmitter, P. (1974) Still the Century of Corporatism?, Review of Politics, 36, 85–131Google Scholar
Schmitter, P. and Lehmbruch, G. (1982) Trends Toward Corporatist Intermediation, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Sharkansky, I. (1979) Wither the State?. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.Google Scholar
Short, L. M. (1923) The Development of National Administrative Organization in the United States. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Simon, H. A. (1978) Rationality as a Process and Product of Thought, American Economic Review, 68.Google Scholar
Skocpol, T. (1979) States and Social Revolutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sundquist, J. L. (1978) A Comparison of Policy-Making Capacity in the United States and Five European Countries: The Case of Population Distribution, in Kraft, Michael E. and Schneider, Mark (eds.), Population Policy Analysis. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.Google Scholar
Tarschys, D. (1981) Rational Decremental Budgeting, Policy Sciences, 14, 49–58Google Scholar
Therborn, G. (1978) What Does the Ruling Class Do When It Rules? London: New Left Books.Google Scholar
Tullock, G. (1965) The Politics of Bureaucracy. Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press.Google Scholar
Vernon, R. (1984) Linking Managers with Ministers: Dilemmas of State-Owned Enterprises, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 4, 39–55Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1949) The Methodology of the Social Sciences. Glencoe, ILL: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, O. E. (1971) Managerial Discretion, Organization Form and the multi-Division Hypothesis, in Marris, R. and Woods, A. (eds.), The Corporate Economy. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Williamson, O. E. (1976) The Evolution of Hierarchy: An Essay on the Organization of Work. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Yates, D. (1978) The Ungovernable City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar