Preparing public administrators to evaluate and shape public policy in a rapidly changing world: new (and not so new) issues

Abstract

It goes without saying that we live in a world of rapid changes. Many of the changes going on in the world have a particularly profound impact on governments and the public administrators responsible for their day-to-day management. These changes which involve such issues as decentralization, privatization, and greater demands for accountability all require new modes of thinking and action on the part of public managers. It also places greater demands on public administrators to assume new and more creative roles in the development of government policies.

This in turn requires that public administrators develop new skills and capacities for both the evaluation of public policy and the helping to shape the priorities of government. Among the various skills that are required by public administrators in this regard are some that are highly technical and others that involve the development of new managerial and leadership capabilities. There are a variety of techniques, methodologies and skills that are available to public sector managers which can enable them to more effectively take on the task of evaluating and prioritizing public policy.

The purpose of this paper will be to review ten major developments in government that have taken place throughout the world in the past two decades and that impose new and more complicated burdens on public managers and government policy makers. Following that, a number of techniques, methodologies and skills will be reviewed that should help to enable public managers to deal more effectively with evaluating and prioritizing public policy in a complex globalizing world.