Prof Martin Lodge and Prof Geoffrey Myers

This course is compulsory on the Master of Public Policy. This course is not available as an outside option.

This course will offer an intensive introduction into key literatures and themes in the study of public management. The emphasis will be on the trans-disciplinary literature dealing with public management in the context of developed and lesser developed world contexts. The course will cover, among other things, questions such as public sector reform, coordination and collaboration, control over bureaucracy, professionalism and public service motivation, performance management, crisis management, leadership, institutional capacity building, and organizational learning. The course will emphasise the key theoretical contributions and relate these to empirical contexts.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures, seminars and workshops totalling a minimum of 40 hours across Autumn Term. 

Students will be expected to produce one essay in Week 3 and one essay in Week 7.

The first piece is a short document (1200 words) offering a view on ‘what is public management’ (week 3). Feedback will be provided by week 5. This gives students an early opportunity to start writing and to consider the broader field of public management.

The other piece is a short essay (1500 words) to be completed by the end of week 7. Feedback will be provided by week 9. The essay will be based on a choice of questions. This will give students the opportunity to practice for their assessed essay and the online exam.

• Barber, M (2015) How to Run a Government, London, Penguin.
• Emerson, K and Nabatchi, T (2015) Collaborative Governance Regimes, Georgetown University Press.
• Hood, C (1998) Art of the State, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Ingrams, A, Piotrowski, S and Berliner, D 'Learning from Our Mistakes: Public Management Reform and the Hope of Open Government' Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 3(4): 257–272
• Myers, G (2023) Spectrum Auctions: Designing markets to benefit the public, industry and the economy, London: LSE Press, pp. 53–67
• Perrow, C (1984) Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technology, (New York, Basic Books)
• Simon, H (1947/2013) Administrative Behavior, Simon & Schuster.

The given texts are preparatory reading only. A full reading list will be provided at the start of the course.

Essay (50%, 2500 words) in the AT.
Online assessment (50%) in the WT.

The online assessment will be administered via Moodle on a day of week 0 of Winter Term to be co-ordinated each year with other courses of the MPP degree with assessments at this time of year. Students will have a fixed window (e.g. 12-hour or 24-hours) within which to access the assignment questions and to respond to them. Once they have logged into Moodle and downloaded the questions students will have 2 hours to prepare and upload their answers. No outside research will be required. Questions will be based on topics covered in lectures and seminars.