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Reflective Public Administration Reform: Building Relationships, Bridging Gaps in Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Peter Fuseini Haruna
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Abstract:

Recognizing limitations associated with past reforms, and taking account of current efforts at democratization, this article suggests that public administration in contemporary African society should be conceptualized more broadly than it has been in the past, and that it should include building relationships and bridging gaps among public administrators, citizens, and communities. Drawing from Ghana's experience, it argues that over-reliance on a restrictive notion of administrative reform—one that emphasizes structures and material welfare—overlooks the normative public purposes central to the field of public administration. The paper concludes by suggesting ways to ground public administration reform in the concrete, lived experiences of the people in Ghana.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Tout en reconnaissant les limitations associées aux réformes passées, et en tenant compte des efforts actuels de démocratisation, cet article suggére que l’administration publique devrait être conceptualisée d’une manière plus large qu’elle ne Ta été dans le passé, et qu’elle devrait inclure la construction de relations et le rapprochement entre les administrateurs publics, les citoyens et les communautés dans la société africaine contemporaine. En nous inspirant de l’expérience ghanéenne, nous avançons que la sur-dépendance d’une notion restrictive de réforme administrative, une notion qui met l’accent sur les structures et le bien-être matériel, néglige les buts publics normatifs centraux au domaine de l’administration publique. Notre article conclut en suggérant des moyens d’asseoir la réforme de l’administration publique sur les expériences concrètes vécues du peuple ghanéen.

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , April 2001 , pp. 37 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2001

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