Admission requirements
Students admitted to the Public Administration Master, regardless of track affiliation. GofS-students enrolment via study coordinator(s).
Description
Why do some countries have lower levels of corruption, deliver better public services, and enjoy greater citizen trust than others? Are there any key institutional characteristics of good government? What are the roles of public managers in creating a high-performing government? This course explores these questions by examining the institutional foundations of good government and governance from a public administration perspective, with a focus on the key characteristics of effective public administration and the role of public managers and their leadership.
In recent years, scholars in public administration and political science have rediscovered the importance of public bureaucracies in understanding varying levels of government performance (Olsen 2006). Studies show that meritocratically recruited, autonomous, and impartial public administration—known as "Weberian bureaucracy"—is associated with long-term economic development, improved health outcomes, reduced corruption, greater innovation, and higher government effectiveness. Additionally, research indicates that demographic representation in public organizations influences organizational performance and policy preferences. However, the field of public management has been criticized for neglecting big questions (Roberts 2017, 9) and assuming that "all states are alike—that Mexico is just like the United States, for example" (Milward 2016, 312). This course aims to address this gap.
In this course, students will not only study relevant academic works but also synthesize findings from previous studies, critically evaluate them, and relate them to current policy debates and practical issues. This course provides an opportunity for students to begin or further develop their master's thesis or independent research. Rather than focusing on a specific geographic area, we will examine various countries worldwide from a comparative perspective.
The class will address questions such as: · What explains the variations in levels of corruption, government effectiveness, and innovativeness across national and sub-national governments? · Why do some countries have higher levels of corruption than others? · Which countries have better gender representation in their bureaucracies? · How does gender representation influence government performance and levels of corruption? · Why are public managers in some national or local governments more innovative than others? · How do the capacities and experience of public sector leaders affect performance?
Course objectives
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:
Explain the variety of administrative characteristics and management practices found around the world;
Understand the extent to which different institutional features and management practices influence governance outcomes and public managers' attitudes and practices;
Critically and constructively assess existing studies;
Apply research design skills and use insights from the course to start or advance an independent research project or a master thesis.
Labour market
- This course will provide students with the understanding of the determinants of effective government from a comparative perspective and a chance to practice research design skills
Timetable
On the right side of programme front page of the E-guide you will find links to the website and timetables, uSis, and Brightspace.
Mode of instruction
This course takes participatory approaches of teaching rather than the classic lecture style approaches. Students are expected to actively engage in individual and group activity as well as class discussion. This course will be taught through a mix of lectures by the instructor, student presentations, group discussion, class activity, and class discussion facilitated by students.
The total course load for this course is 140 hours (5 EC x 28 hours). These hours are (approximately) spent on:
Attending lectures (a total of 14 hours), Self-study (e.g., studying readings and cases, completing assignments) (126 hours)
Assessment method
· Active class participation and in-class activities: 20% · Final assignment: 80%
All partial grades can be compensated. There is a retake opportunity for the final assignment. Starting from the 2020-2021 academic year, partial grades will no longer remain valid after the exam and the resit of the course.
Reading list
The course does not follow a single text across all sessions. Instead, each class session will consist of 2-5 mandatory readings, which should be available via Leiden University Library.
Registration
*Please note, registration for block 2 electives will be organised by the OSC in a different way from the regular course registration for semester 1. More information about this will follow in the second half of September.
Contact
Dr. K. Suzuki k.suzuki@fgga.leidenuniv.nl