Table of Contents
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
Part 1 Exploring the New Frontiers of Public Administration
1 Public Administration: Not Entirely of the Past and Not Yet of the Future 7
Public Administration 8
The Formative Years 9
Thirty Years of Reforms 13
Widening Gaps 13
Open System of Governance 16
2 What is Different About Serving in the 21st Century? 19
Difficult, Complicated, Complex 20
Citizens as Creators of Public Value 24
Serving Beyond the Predictable 27
3 A New Synthesis of Public Administration 31
An Enabling Framework 33
A Broader Definition of Public Results 36
Learning from Practice: The Singapore Prison Service Case (Singapore) 42
Learning from Practice: The Bolsa Familia Case (Brazil) 43
An Expanded View of the Role of Government 45
Learning from Practice: Public Safety Centres (the Netherlands) 49
Leveraging the Collective Power 51
Learning from Practice: The Homelessness Partnering Strategy (Canada) 54
Public Administration as a Co-evolving System 56
4 Preparing Governments for the Challenges of the 21sl Century 59
Serving Beyond the Predictable: Emergence 61
AnticipatJve Capacity 62
Inventive Capacity 66
Learning from Practice: HIV/AIDS (Brazil) 71
Learning from Practice: The Truth and Reconciliation Process (South Africa) 72
Innovative Society 74
Learning from Practice: The NorthLight School Experiment (Singapore) 78
Building Resilience 80
Learning from Practice: The Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (Australia) 82
Public Policies and Resilience 83
Learning from Practice: Rotterdam Tarwewijk, a Resilient Neighbourhood? (the Netherlands) 86
Adaptive Capacity 88
Learning from Practice: SARS Revisited, Insight from Singapore (Singapore) 89
5 Government Fit for the Future 91
A Solid Foundation 92
Accountability Revisited 96
Compliance Revisited 99
Public Organizations as Co-operation Platforms 103
Public Organizations as Innovation Platforms 105
Public Policies as Experimentation Platforms 109
Learning from Practice: National Health Conferences and Participatory Processes (Brazil) 111
Learning from Practice: Paediatric Complex Care, Taming of the Queue (Canada) 112
Public Services as Co-production Platforms 113
Learning from Practice: From "Care Trap" to "As Long as Possible in Your Own life" (Denmark) 114
6 The New Synthesis Journey Continues 117
A Narrative 119
An Adaptive System of Government 120
And, the Journey Continues 123
Part 2 Case Studies: Bridging Theory and Practice
7 The Changing Reality of Practice 127
Achieving Public Results 128
Public Results as Collective Enterprise 131
Resilience 134
Exploration, Experimentation and Learning-by-doing 135
8 The Story of the Singapore Prison Service: From Custodians of Prisoners to Captains of Life 139
Changing From Within 140
Harnessing the Collective Efforts of Society 145
Organizational, Public and Societal Outcomes 153
9 Bolsa Familia Program: Funding Families for Development 155
Social Policy in Brazil: A Brief Historical Context 155
Formative Years: From Local Level Initiatives to a National Policy 156
From Early Stages to Permanent National Policy 161
Documented Impact 163
10 Vision, Collaboration, Persistence and Hard Work: The Canadian Federal Government's Homelessness Partnering Strategy 167
Homelessness in Canada 168
The Homelessness Partnering Strategy 171
Practical Learnings 173
New Synthesis Learnings 176
11 Public Safety Centres in the Netherlands 183
Policy Context 184
Outline of the Public Safety Centres in Practice 186
Concluding Reflections 194
12 Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority: A Case Study on Agility and Resilience 197
Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction Authority: Early Establishment 199
Community-led Recovery 203
Operational Challenges 207
Governance Challenges 211
13 Workfare in Singapore 217
How It All Began 218
Making Innovation Possible by Taking Incremental Steps 224
Conclusion 225
14 Citizen-centred Public Services: Designing for Complex Outcomes 229
Total Place 232
Croydon Total Place Pilot 233
Swindon Family Life 237
Lessons from the Cases 240
Part 3 The New Synthesis Journey
15 The New Synthesis Journey 247
Setting the Stage 247
The Mobilization Phase 255
The Convergence Phase 260
16 The Netherlands Roundtable 273
Perspectives on Resilience 273
Implications for Government in Fostering Resilience 278
Perspectives on Emergence 280
Implications of Emergence for Government 284
17 The Canada Roundtable 289
Achieving Societal and Civic Results 289
Achieving Results of High Public Value 292
Public Engagement as a Contributor to Public Results 294
Disentangling Compliance and Performance 296
18 The Brazil Roundtable 301
A Search for Balance 301
Practical Explorations 303
Summary of Findings 310
19 The Singapore Roundtable 313
Exploration and Anticipation 313
Social Innovation and Co-production 316
Experimentation 319
The Enabling Role of Information and Communications Technology 321
Adaptive Capacity 323
20 The United Kingdom Roundtable 327
Citizen-focused Public Service 327
Open Government 331
Shared Public Accountability 332
Future Leaders 334
21 Group Discussions in Australia and New Zealand 339
Appendix A Names and Affiliations of Invited Speakers and Participants at NS6 International Roundtables 343
Endnotes 355
Bibliography 379
Index 409
