Power and Service: A Cross-National Analysis of Public Administration

Hardy Wickwar takes a global look at public administration and investigates what governments do to, for, and with people; how governments treat their lands and the resources on, in, around, and above them; and how governments relate to their citizens through the exercise of power, law and political judgement. Relating public administration to a country’s social structure, law and history, the book expounds a European model and then analyzes variants in relation to differences in geography and historical setting. Wickwar makes a distinction between continental countries where people accept the state as supremely important and island countries that do not. Taking as given the fact that governments render services, Wickwar examines the varying ways in which they ise their power to serve their people: what governments do themselves and what they leave for other social institutions to accomplish.