Theory and Practice in Public Policy and Administration

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Abstract
The complexity of the relationships between government and society, and the wide range of activities characteristic of the modern state, inevitably give rise to disagreement over what constitutes the proper mode of analysis of public administration. This problem of theory is closely linked to the problem of establishing and explaining what goes on in practice; and it is the practice of politics which creates the greatest theoretical hurdle. The response of one dominant approach to the study and practice of governmental activity, characterized here as ‘managerialism’, is to leave out both policy and politics. The argument of the article is that, not only can politics not be ‘left out’, but that political analysis offers a superior approach to ‘managerial’ analysis both as a form of explanation and as a prescriptive mode.

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