Public
Bureaucracy is large, growing,
and consequential. Our understanding,
however, is limited. Although successive
efforts to address the issues have made headway, much remains to be
done. Partly
this is explained by the interdisciplinary character of the public
bureau – in
that the political science, economic, and organization theory
literatures are all implicated.
There is also widespread confusion over the
role of efficiency and how to define it.
The relevant level of microanalytics with which to engage the
issues is
also disputed. Altogether, the sheer
complexity is daunting. This
paper does not purport to solve
the problem but takes the position that the lens of contract/governance
as
developed for the study of the private sector (including private
bureaucracy)
is pertinent. On the premise that
solving a complex problem can often benefit from relating it to a
simpler
problem that has already been worked up, I begin with an examination of
private
bureaucracies (as examined through the lens of contract).
I then apply this to public bureaus, where
the problems are more complicated – especially because of the political
nature
of the issues. I
conclude with a speculative
discussion of the challenges to entrepreneurship that are posed as
among
different nation states in the 21st Century.