ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to sound decision making, which many view as the essence of public administration and the key to governmental effectiveness. In the case of small-world problems, those that are more routine and repetitive, incrementalism permits more direct and rapid decision making, not unlike traditional managerial approaches, where the focus is on efficiency. Learn the general characteristics of decision making in “small-world” problems, and in “large-world” problems. The new public management approach favored decentralized decision making based on market criteria and large amounts of employee discretion. The political approach favors a kind of pluralistic “give-and-take” in decision making: based on consensus building and compromise. Public administration involves the formulation and implementation of public policies intended to provide services and/or impose regulations on individuals, groups, and organizations in the political community. Large-world problems, by contrast, tend to be nonroutine, unique, or to occur infrequently.
