Cases in Public Policy and Administration

Jay M. Shafritz is Professor of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. He,is author of over three dozen texts and reference books on various aspects of government, management, and public administration.Christopher Borick is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute of Public Opinion at Muhlenberg College.

• Preface: On The Utility Of The Historical Case Study  I: THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION  1.  Sherlock Holmes And The Case Of Scientific Management: How The World's Most Famous Detective  Was A Pivotal Influence On The Development Of American Public Administration.  2. Muckrakers And Reformers To The Rescue: How The Progressive Movement Created Modern Public Administration From The Muck Of Corruption, Indifference And Ignorance.  II: PUBLIC POLICY MAKING  3.  The case for understanding the critical role of doctrine in public policy making: "Seeing" policy evolve through the lenses of the doctrinal development cycle.  4.  Who really made the decision to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima? Was it President Harry S Truman or his advisors, the chief executive or his team of technical experts?  III: THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT  5. How the ideas of an academic economist, Fredrich A. Hayek, led to the Thatcher Revolution in Great Britain, inspired the Reagan Revolution in the United States and pushed the world's global economy into its worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.  6. From German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to American President Bill Clinton: How Political Leaders Created the Modern Welfare State Using Social Insurance As An Alternative To Socialism.  IV: INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS  7. Gun shows, gun laws and gun totin': Second Amendment fanatics versus all levels of government.  8.  The Politics-Administration Dichotomy Negated Again: How The Rove Doctrine Subordinated State, Local And National Environmental Policy To The Service Of The Republican Party.  V: ETHICS  9. The Gas Chamber Of Philadelphia: How A 1977 Incident At Independence Mall Illustrates The "Banality Of Evil" Concept First Applied To Adolf Eichmann, The Nazi Holocaust Administrator.  10. The Red Ink Of Orange County: When Is It Ethical For Public Treasurers To Gamble With Public Money?  Only When You Win!  VI: ORGANIZATION THEORY  11. Using Systems Theory To Understand How Sun Tzu Predictably Turned Concubines Into Soldiers In Ancient China; And How Chaos Theory Explains Why Systems are Ultimately Unpredictable Even When They Are Otherwise Understood  12.  Using William Shakespeare's Plays To Prove That He Was An Instinctive And Early Organization Theorist: Whether In A Beehive Or The Court Of Elizabeth I, He Knew How Honey (Or Money) Got Things Done.  VII: ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR  13. The Case Of The Ubiquitous Chief Of Staff: How A Job Invented By And Once Confined To The Military Escaped Its Uniformed Existence And Is Now Commonly Found In Government And Corporate Offices.  14. Organization Development in Hollywood war movies: From John Wayne in The Sands of Iwo Jima to G. I. Jane and beyond.  VIII: MANAGERIALISM AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY  15. George Orwell's Big Brother is Bigger and Better than Ever: He is not Only Watching You; He is Counting The Number of Times You Visit His Web Site, Taking Your Picture, Converting It To A Series Of Numbers And Destroying Your Anonymity!  16. Was It Al Gore Who Really Invented the Internet? And did Gore Subsequently lose the 2000 Presidential Election to George W. Bush by Threatening to Take Away the Internet?  IX: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT  17. How The American Strategic Policy Of Containment (Of Communism In General And The Russian Soviet Union In Particular) Gradually Evolved Just After World War II To Win The Cold War In 1989.  18. The Rand Corporation As An Exemplar: The Origins Of, And Increasingly Important Role Of, Strategic Think Tanks.  X: LEADERSHIP  19. Implementing Strategy Through The Levels Of Leadership And Strategic Optimism: How Strategic Leadership Invariably Devolves Into Tactical Operations.  20. Was It Good Leadership For General Douglas Macarthur To Take His Staff With Him When He Abandoned His Army In The Philippines And Ran Away To Australia At The Beginning Of World War II?  XI: PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT  21. Why Advancement In Public Administration Has Always Been An Essay Contest: Case Examples From The Presidency And The Bureaucracy.  22. The Case For Mentoring Junior Managers With Executive Potential: How General Fox Conner Set A Young Dwight D. Eisenhower On The Path To The Presidency.  XII: SOCIAL EQUITY  23. Brown Reverses Plessy's Doctrine: The Story Of How Thurgood Marshall Convinced The U. S. Supreme Court That Separate Was Inherently Not Equal, Laid The Legal Foundations For The Modern Civil Rights Movement, And Earned Himself An Appointment As The First African American Associate Justice On The Supreme Court.  24. The Government Regulation Of Sex: Toward Greater Social Equity At Work Through Remedial Legislation, Judicial Precedents And Sexual Harassment Prohibitions Written Into Manuals Of Personnel Rules  XIII: PUBLIC FINANCE  25. Take Me Out To The Ball Game And You Buy The Ticket: The Case For Public Stadium Financing.  26. The Fall Of The House Of California: How The Richest State In The U. S. Cratered Into Budgetary Chaos And A Fiscal Nightmare  XIV: PROGRAM ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION  27. Why Florence Nightingale, The Famous Nurse Who Pioneered The Graphic Presentation Of Statistical Data, Is The Now Forgotten "Mother" Of "Powerpoint" Illustrations.  28. The Often Ridiculous Nature of Public Policy and its Analysis: Why It Is So Important to Always Allow for Ridicule and to Seriously Consider the Ridiculous.