A Neglected Subject: How Grand Politics Affects Public Administration

Abstract

Specialists in public administration often deny a significant connection between questions of administration and high-level politics. But there is a close and important connection: the subjects we examine at the middle- and micro-levels of administration are largely determined by choices made in the higher realm of grand politics. Understanding the connection between grand politics and administration is especially important during turbulent phases of history such as the last twenty years. One way to comprehend grand politics and its connection to administration is through the analytic lens of governing strategy. Leaders of states invent strategies that identify key national objectives and the main lines of national policy, and institutions are built or reformed to give expression to those strategies. But strategies are fragile, and consequently the institutional architecture of the state requires constant renovation.