Inventing The Paradigm For The Future Of Public Administration In Ghana - Reverberations From The Past And Lessons Of Today.
...IN GHANA - REVERBERATIONS FROM THE PAST AND LESSONS OF TODAY.
ISABEL BOATEN
Abstract
For over a hundred years, the quest to reform the public sector has spurred the development of an impressive body of knowledge on public administration. However, the jury is still out on what the best theory for reforming the public sector is. Is it the rational bureaucracy theory of Webber? Can there ever be a dichotomy between politics and administration? Is the satisficing theory of Herbert Wilson the answer? or the humanist approach of Waldo? Is the panacea an entrepreneurial approach to public administration as posited by the New Public Management proponents and the revolutionary strides to reinvent government by Osborne and Gaebler?
Whilst there is sure to be a hang jury on what the best theory is, the verdict is clear that there is no single theory that answers the old age question of how to reform the public sector.
The absence of “the theory” that will transform the public sector has been attributed to several factors key of which are the idiosyncrasies of a country including the vision of political leadership, the preoccupation of an era, the system of governance, culture and the skill set of public managers.
Since colonial times, there have been various attempts to reform the public sector in Ghana but the returns have been difficult to quantify. These reforms have been hinged on the execution of sometimes adhoc, sometimes well defined strategic programmes largely executed under the tutelage of international organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The creation of the Ministry of Public Sector Reform in 2005 was an acknowledgment of the importance of these reforms.
It would appear that these reforms have been based on programmes influenced by applied theories of public administration but not on any identifiable theory or theories of...
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