As a little one, hearing JFK speak for the first time made me want to be just like him. For some reason, his words went straight to my heart, filling my heart with something wonderful. It is a feeling that I later came to understand as a desire to serve-to pursue a life of public service. My desire was for this ideal. These feelings have taken me on a long and tortuous journey. I have been a public servant most of my life. I have gone from a poor little black child, laborer, contractor, and teacher, to politician, lawyer, and judge. But strangely enough, my journey did not end there. My journey did not end with political success. Strangely enough, I discovered that my desire and my ideal meant something deeper and even more wonderful. I discovered that it meant something above and beyond politics-something for everyone. I discovered something good for every single person: the ideal life, a life of true purpose. Not something for the far-distant future, but something that can be achieved in the here and now. And I want to share my experiences of this process (the Tao) with you.

Public service values are too rarely discussed in public administration courses and scholarship, despite recent research demonstrating the importance of these values in the daily decision making processes of public service professionals. A discussion of these very tenets and their relevance to core public functions, as well as which areas might elicit value conflicts for public professionals, is central to any comprehensive understanding of budget and finance, human resource management, and strategic planning in the public sector. Public Service Values is written specifically for graduate and undergraduate courses in public administration, wherever a discussion of public service ideals might enrich the learning experience and offer students a better understanding of daily practice. Exploring the meaning and application of specific values, such as Neutrality, Efficiency, Accountability, Public Service, and Public Interest, provides students and future professionals with a ‘workplace toolkit’ for the ethical delivery of public services. Well-grounded in scholarly literature and with a relentless focus on the public service professional, Public Service Values highlights the importance of values in professional life and encourages a more self-aware and reflective public practice. Case studies to stimulate reflection are interwoven throughout the book and application to practice is cemented in a final section devoted to value themes in professional life as well as a chapter dedicated to holding oneself accountable. The result is a book that challenges us to embrace the necessity of public service values in our public affairs curricula and that asks the important questions current public service professionals should make a habit of routinely applying in their daily decision making.

The Palgrave Handbook of the Public Servant examines what it means to be a public servant in today’s world(s) where globalisation and neoliberalism have proliferated the number of actors who contribute to the public purpose sector and created new spaces that public servants now operate in. It considers how different scholarly approaches can contribute to a better understanding of the identities, motivations, values, roles, skills, positions and futures for the public servant, and how scholarly knowledge can be informed by and translated into value for practice. The book combines academic contributions with those from practitioners so that key lessons may be synthesised and translated into the context of the public servant.

In this conceptual guided tour of contemporary public administration, Jong S. Jun challenges the limitations of the discipline which, he argues, make it inadequate for understanding today's complex human phenomena. Drawing on examples and case studies from both Eastern and Western countries, he emphasizes critical and interpretive perspectives as a counterforce to the instrumental-technical rationality that reduces the field to structural and functionalist views of management. He also emphasizes the idea of democratic social construction to transcend the field's reliance on conventional pluralist politics. Jun stresses that public administrators and institutions must create opportunities for sharing and learning among organizational members and must facilitate interactive processes between public administrators and citizens so that the latter can voice their problems and opinions. The future role of public administrators will be to transcend the limitations of the management and governing of modern public administration and to explore ways of constructing socially meaningful alternatives through communicative action and the participation of citizens.

Designed to serve as a basic text for an introductory course in Public Administration, this innovative work provides students with an understanding of the basic management functions that are covered in all standard textbooks with two important differences. First, it is written to address the needs of both the experienced practitioner and the entry-level public servant. Case examples bridge the content-rich environment of practitioners with the basic principles of public administration sought by pre-service students. Second, the discussion of basic management practices is grounded in the political and ethical tensions inherent in the American constitutional form of governance. This reflects the authors' belief that public administration operates as an integral part of the country's political traditions, and thereby helps define the political culture. The book provides a framework for understanding American political traditions and how they inform public administration as a political practice. Key Changes in the Second Edition include: A new introductory chapter that explains what the authors mean by a constitutional approach and why that is important. An expanded discussion of the role of civil society in promoting the common good. A new section in chapter 5 on New Public Governance. Updated exhibits that incorporate up-to-date census data and revenue figures (chapter 10). A new section in chapter 14 that recognises the importance of maintaining accountability in contract and networked systems of governance. Significantly rewritten chapters to add emphasis on the relevance of the chapter material to nonprofit organisations. A significantly revised bibliography which incorporates new bodies of research that have appeared since the first edition.

Exploring the manifold relationships between religion and public administration, this topical book conceptualises and theorises the diverse influence of religions on the functioning of public administrative systems across the globe.

"Since his undergraduate days in Cambridge, George Yeo has spoken and written much in and out of government. Many remember the things which he said or wrote years ago. This book is a compilation of some of his best speeches and writings which were selected by Asad Latif and Lee Huay Leng in consultation with him. The book has a rather unusual title because there are many aspects to George Yeo which makes him difficult to classify. As a student leader, he was radical but conciliatory. In the Singapore Armed Forces, he was atypical, moving from the Army to the Air Force before becoming Director of Joint Operations and Planning. In politics, he is fondly remembered by artists, journalists, doctors, businessmen and foreign diplomats, and by his colleagues and constituents. His own staff said he had a curious mind. They complained that he rarely used the drafts which they had prepared for him. George Yeo describes himself as a Taoist even though he is a Roman Catholic and is now on the Papal staff. Buddhists are surprised he championed the revival of Nalanda University as an international project. He remains close to Singaporeans of different races and religions even though he has a deep sense of his own ancestral roots and religion. In politics, he has been described both as a liberal and a conservative. In his Parliamentary maiden speech, he spoke of the importance of democracy but has repeated many times that democracy is only a means and not an end in itself. He has a deep interest in history which partly explains his seeing the re-emergence of China and India earlier than most others. The bonsai and the banyan are metaphors he uses for Singapore. Singapore is a city-state and must never have an inflated view of itself. The bonsai describes Singapore modestly, but he adds that the bonsai can be intensely interesting and valuable. The banyan provides shade and we are grateful for it, but too much makes us weak. As for the Tao, that perhaps is what gives unity to his many interests."--