Public Administration in Contested Societies

by O'Connor, Karl

• ISBN13: 9781137298140
• ISBN10: 1137298146
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-03-31
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The management of conflict has long been of concern to social scientists, urban planners and community-minded citizens. While differing mechanisms of managing ethno-national or ethno-linguistic tensions exist, few studies advance our understanding of how conflicts are actually managed – in other words, the study of ethnic peace. Public Administration in Contested Societies draw on the experiences of two differing examples of ethnic peace: Belfast and Brussels in the expectation that other contested cities such as Kirkuk, Jerusalem, Nicosia or Mostar, who may one day consider power-sharing as a form of governance, may learn from what have been categorised as sites of successful power-sharing. While there are few studies of ethnic peace, fewer studies again seek to understand the role of the elite level bureaucrat in sustaining this peace. The book ascertains the extent of discretion available to the bureaucratic elite and further, through determining core beliefs, establishes how this discretion is employed.

Author Biography

Karl O' Connor is Lecturer in Politics and Public Policy at Glasgow Caledonian University, UK. He has published in the areas of conflict management/resolution, public policy, bureaucrat behaviour, Q Methodology and European committee governance. His PhD thesis, upon which this book is based, won The Hutton Prize for Excellence which aims to reward research that contributes to increasing standards of governance.

Table of Contents

1. Representative Bureaucracy in Plural Societies
2. Researching in Contested Cities: Belfast and Brussels
3. Belfast: Everyday Policy-making in a Contested Environment
4. Brussels: Power-Sharing at the Lowest Common Denominator
5. The Merit Principle in a Representative Bureaucracy: Belfast
6. Active Representation within the Power-sharing Society: The Values
Guiding Administrative Decision-making in Belfast and Brussels
7. Concluding Remarks: Bureaucrats and Conflict Management