In this module, we will examine the role of public bureaucracies in the policy making process, with a strong focus on reforms within and across public agencies, reforms collectively known as the “New Public Management”. We will also examine new technologies, such as artificial intelligence to understand how they affect the delivery of public services. We will begin with a look at some of the basic questions of public administration, such as, why do public bureaucracies exist, how have they evolved over time and why does their organisational structure matter for making public policy. We will also examine how bureaucratic agencies are constructed by politicians, as well as how politicians interact with bureaucrats, and how these interactions matter for public policy outcomes. Students will also learn how bureaucratic agencies form reputations, protect them and use them in order to combat threats from politicians and external influences.

We will analyse numerous reforms that have been implemented in public agencies across the world-reforms that are designed to make agencies more like the free market and more results-driven, such as privatisation, performance measurement and contracting public services to the private sector. We will analyse how these reforms are designed, how they are implemented and ultimately how effective they are. Finally, we will also explore the burgeoning role of new technologies and how they affect public administration. For example, we will explore the use and implications of artificial intelligence in public administration and how algorithms increasingly make decisions that were previously made by humans.

Some of the questions we explore in this module include:
• How does public sector organisation affect public policy outcomes?
• Why are some agencies highly independent and autonomous while others are tightly controlled?
• How do some agencies develop autonomy and resist political control?
• Does performance-related pay work for public sector employees?
• Under what circumstances do governments contract out public services to the private sector? Is contracting cost-effective?
• How reliable are indicators that measure public sector performance?
• Under what circumstances do agencies successfully work together to implement policy?
• What is the role of citizens in public management and policy implementation?
• What effect will Brexit have on policy implementation and civil servant workload in the UK, in European Union institutions and in European Union member states?
• How is artificial intelligence used in public administration? What are the effects of such use and what are the implications for democracy?

By the end of this module, students should be able to understand why and how public agencies are designed and constructed as they are; why and how politicians and bureaucrats interact as they do, and how this affects public policy; and why and how New Public Management reforms have been implemented and what it means for policy outputs and outcomes.  Finally, students learn research methods skills through course readings and assessment.