ABSTRACT
Public management requires mastery of political as well as administrative skills. It also requires balancing responsibility and action with political sensitivity and public service values. Public management cannot be properly understood without being placed in its political, economic, and constitutional context. Everything that government does must first pass through a sieve that blends connections between levels and branches of government, partisan politics with substantive mission, economic efficiency with constitutional freedoms, and a tacit agreement between business and government and nonprofit enterprises about the boundaries which surround them. The public interest model of public management requires a connection between professional concerns and social needs while avoiding partisan conflicts. The character of the polity affects the work of public managers, just as market mechanisms affect the work of business managers. Public management is complex and requires a sophisticated appreciation for the interconnections that exist between all segments of society.
