ABSTRACT
This book presents an overview of the state of the art of the scientific study of public management in various European states and the United States, written by eminent, nationally renowned scholars from the various countries. Examples are presented of distinctive approaches to the study of public management in a variety of western European countries ranging from Norway up north in Scandinavia, the United Kingdom in the west, Germany, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands in the middle, Italy and Spain in the south, to Hungary in the east of western Europe. Most of the well-known textbooks and handbooks on public management are Anglo-American oriented. The North American and English-language audience is of course overwhelmingly large. Books written in German, French, Italian or Spanish, let alone in ‘small’ languages like Dutch, Norwegian or Swiss, only have a relatively small national market, and are hardly known across the border. In this book, authoritative experts in the study of public management in their respective countries, usually authors of standard public management textbooks in their countries, present the specific characteristics of the academic study of public management in their homeland, and place that in the context of their specific national state and administration. This book shows the national distinctiveness in the study of public management in a number of European countries, which, although probably well known to the inhabitants of those countries, is hardly known to the outside international, predominantly English-speaking, community. To them this book will, first of all, be highly informative.
