Democracy Administered
How Public Administration Shapes Representative Government

Those who implement policies have the discretion to shape democratic values. Public administration is not policy administered, but democracy administered. 

Anthony Michael Bertelli (Author)

9781316621097, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 September 2021

200 pages
23 x 15 x 1.1 cm, 0.4 kg

'We know that efficient, effective and equitable administration of law and policy is important for the well-being of democracy. But Bertelli turns the equation around, vividly illuminating how public administrators make fundamental decisions about the conduct of democracy itself. Bridging democratic theory and public administration, he demonstrates how the democratic values of public administrators are the missing link in debates about the quality and character of representative democracy.' Christopher Ansell, University of California, Berkeley

How does representative government function when public administration can reshape democracy? The traditional narrative of public administration balances the accountability of managers, a problem of control, with the need for effective administration, a problem of capability. The discretion modern governments give to administrators allows them to make tradeoffs among democratic values. This book challenges the traditional view with its argument that the democratic values of administration should complement the democratic values of the representative government within which they operate. Control, capability and value reinforcement can render public administration into democracy administered. This book offers a novel framework for empirically and normatively understanding how democratic values have, and should be, reinforced by public administration. Bertelli's theoretical framework provides a guide for managers and reformers alike to chart a path toward democracy administered.

1. Democracy from administration
2. Accountability values
3. Process values
4. Governance structures and democratic values
5. The value reinforcement hypothesis
6. The complementarity principle
Further problems for democracy administered.

Subject Areas: Public administration [JPP], Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Comparative politics [JPB]