Encyclopedia of Public Administration & Public Policy
The first edition of the Encyclopedia of Public Administration & Public Policy (EPAP1) was published by Marcel Dekker in two volumes in 2003 under the editorship of Jack Rabin, with a supplementary volume issued in 2005 under the Taylor and Francis imprint. After Jack’s death in November 2006, Evan Berman assumed the duties of editor in chief for the 2nd edition (EPAP2) which was published in a three volume set in 2007-2008. EPAP2 was eventually posted “online” , and supplementary entries have been intermittently added to the online collection.
In 2012, Melvin Dubnick of the University of New Hampshire and Domonic Bearfield of Texas A&M assumed the role of co-editors in chief for EPAP3, which was scheduled for publication of the print version in 2015.
Encyclopedia of Public Administration & Public Policy (EPAP3)
In addition to overseeing revisions and updates of current entries, Dubnick and Bearfield are engaged in refocusing EPAP as an important online-accessible resource for students of public administration and public policy who seek an informed introduction to the wide range of concepts, ideas, theories and historical material that is central to an understanding and appreciation of the fields.
Entries are scholarly in content and written in accordance with the standards of scholarship expected of contributions to the major journals in both fields.
Although entries are presented in the usual A-Z format, a topical reorganization was set up that highlighted major subjects in the fields and make extensive use of the cross-referenced links to present entries in a more coherent and comprehensive fashion. While major gaps in current coverage were filled, the editors have added topical sections devoted to methodology, major issues and controversies, and entries devoted to highlighting the contributions of hundreds of “notable” academics and practitioners – past and present.
Editors
Editors include:
Domonic A. Bearfield
He is an associate professor in the Bush School of Government and Public Service. He also serves as the coordinator for the public management track. He teaches Foundations of Public Service, Ethics in Public Policy, Public Management, Human Resources in Public Administration, and Public Service and Administration Capstone Seminar courses. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Norfolk State University. He earned his Master’s of Public Administration at the University of Delaware, and a PhD in Public Administration from Rutgers-Newark.
Before joining Texas A&M University, Dr. Bearfield was an assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire. His research focuses on issues related to governance in public administration and on improving the understanding of public sector patronage. Dr. Bearfield’s work has appeared in Public Administration Review, Review of Public Personnel Administration and other leading journals.
Mel Dubnick
He has been professor of Political Science at the University of New Hampshire, since the fall of 2005.
For nearly three decades, Dubnick’s scholarly work has focused on accountability and governance in the public, non-profit and private sectors. He is especially concerned with the conceptual and research issues surrounding accountability and how to develop a more realistic and credible approach to governance reforms aimed at enhancing accountability.
Dubnick is the co-author of textbooks on public policy analysis, public administration, and American government.
In addition to his work on government accountability systems, his scholarly publications include articles on a wide range of topics, including Third World development planning, health care reform, government regulatory policies, intergovernmental relations, industrial policy, administrative reform, and teaching administrative ethics.
From September 2003 to June 2005 he was Visiting Professor and Senior Fellow at the Queen’s University Belfast Institute of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research and he remained associated with Queen’s as a International Research Fellow for the next year.
From 1992 to 2005 he was professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Rutgers University – Newark and was designated professor emeritus upon his departure from RU-N.
He had previously held full-time academic positions at Baurch College/CUNY (1988-1992), the University of Kansas (1980-1988), Loyola University of Chicago (1976-1980), and Emporia Kansas State University (1974-1976).
He also holds or has held adjunct positions at the University of Northern Colorado, Southern Colorado State College. the School of Public Affairs of Baruch College/CUNY, the Advanced Programs MPA faculty at the University of Oklahoma, and the Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs.
Contributing Editors
Early contributing editors include, together with their entries, the following:
Robert Agranoff, Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations
Ann O’M. Bowman, State Government
Marleen Brans, Comparative Methods
Terry Buss, Economic Development
Kathe Callahan, Notables
Angela Eikenberry, Non-Profit Organization and Management
Richard Feiock, Urban and Regional Governance
Gerald T. Gabris, Local Government and Administration
Miguel Glatzer, Social Policy
Charles Hermann, Foreign Policy and International Relations
Jonathan Justice, Budget and Finance
Carol W. Lewis, Ethics
Mary Malone, Central and South America
Justin O’Brien, Financial Market Regulation
Shannon Portillo, Criminal Justice Policy and Administration
Scott Robinson, Methods/Quantitative Methods
Leila Sadeghi, Notables
Patricia Shields, Defense Policies and Military Management
Daniel Smith, Budget and Finance
Stacy Vandeveer, Environmental Policy and Management
José D. Villalobos, Presidency
William Waugh, Emergency Management
Kaifeng Yang, Performance Management
Topical Outline
One of the major tasks in the EPAP3 Project involved developing a coherent and useful topical structure. The traditional arrangement of entries in printed encyclopedias (e.g., pre-online Encyclopedia Britannica) involved alphabetical listings supplemented by an index or detailed Table of Contents. In the 1970s, Britannica introduced the idea of a “Propædia” , which was to serve as a means for categorizing all the knowledge contained in the other two parts of the Encyclopedia Britannica (the Micropedia and the Macropedia). In that regard, while the editors of the EPAP3 did not think it possible to develop a topical outline that offers a comprehensive classification of all knowledge in the fields of Public Administration and public policy, they believe there is a need for some categorization and cross-referencing of entries to help the reader make sense of the intellectual interconnections.
While justified intellectually in the Encyclopedia Britannica, an approach similar to the “Pro” has become something of a necessity with the advent of the online publication of encyclopedic projects where links, keywords and the power of search engines undermined the value of a general research resource for someone looking up a concept or a term on the web. What a topical outline provides is some coherence that can attract the all too typical “hit-and-run” searcher to stay a bit longer and explore the knowledge base provided by the encyclopedia.
As the editors of the EPAP3 undertook the revisions for the 3rd edition, the topical structure of EPAP2 proved to be unwieldy and filled with obvious gaps and overlaps that led the editors to rethink the propædic arrangement.
The editors were the first to acknowledge that the fields of public administration and public policy have been increasingly globalized over the past two decades, and they are making every effort to reflect that in the choice of new topics and the involvement of contributing editors from outside the United States. Nevertheless, there is an admitted United States-centric bias to content of EPAP3 that is unavoidable given the intellectual history of the field, the content of previous editions, and (to be frank) “market” factors. The most obvious indication of this bias is the existence of an “A-Level” topical area devoted to American Public Administration, but it shows up as well in the selection of “Notables” and “Issues and Controversies” (among others topics). The authors have attempted to offset this somewhat with an expansion of the “Comparative PA” entries as well as an effort to bring more global orientations to many of the “Public Policy” entries. In addition, the editors were confident that new and revised entries for EPAP3 will reflect the influence of the globalized nature of the Public administration and public policy scholarship.
Second, among the advantages of the “online” nature of EPAP3 is that the editors can take a more relaxed attitude toward the sorting of entries into topical areas. Cross referencing is easier when we can use active links both within a topical table of contents – or within the online entries themselves. Yet, it is still important to have an overall topical arrangement that makes sense functionally while being as inclusive and comprehensive as possible.
- American Public Administration
Entries associated with this A-head will include those that have distinctly United States focus or content or have sufficient US-related content to be cross-referenced under this topical area. - Comparative and International Administration
Previous editions of EPAP had some comparative and international content, but in this edition the editors made an effort to cover the globe (in terms of most countries) as well as the growing importance of non-state actors. - Ethics and Public Integrity This topical area address the wide range of problems (e.g., corruption) and dilemmas facing public administrators and the various approaches to understanding and fostering ethical behavior and public integrity.
- Issues and Controversies Under this general topic are debates that have been central to the development of the fields. Again, the editors expect significant overlap and cross-referencing for the entries applied here.
- Key Concepts and Movements Certain terms (e.g., “privatization,” “governance” ) play a critical role in the fields, and many are associated with major intellectual and reform movements (e.g., New Public Management, Organizational Development) that span many other topics.
- Management: In this topical area it is included most of what typically covered in the typical curriculum, from budgeting and finance to human resource management, to non-profits and NGOs.
- Notables: Individuals who have made major contributions to the study and practice of public administration and public policy will be covered in this section, providing information about their lives but focusing attention on those contributions.
- Public Policy:
- Theories and Methods: Here, the focus is on quantitative and qualitative methods, research strategies and design, as well as significant methodological approaches to the study of public administration and public policy.