Three worlds of public administration modernization

Abstract

Since Max Weber analysed the process of the historical differentiation of religion, politics, law and economics, it is now accepted that it is functional differentiation into relatively autonomous subsystems and spheres of action, together with the rationalization of these areas according to their own principles, that fundamentally determines the modern. This immediately focuses the spotlight on public administration characterized as a type of bureaucracy with a system of official responsibilities, a hierarchy of offices, an official routine, adherence to a set of rules, a career public service. Between the basic bureaucratic character of public administrations in the west and the various manifestations of the nation state, it is possible to identify certain politico-cultural communities in the Anglo-Saxon area on the one hand and Continental Europe on the other which enable a distinction to be made between civic culture administration and the classic system of administration

Citation

König, K. (1998), "Three worlds of public administration modernization", International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, Vol. 1 No. 4, pp. 481-520. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOTB-01-04-1998-B005