Product Details
The Political Economy of Public Administration: Institutional Choice in the Public Sector (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)

The Political Economy of Public Administration: Institutional Choice in the Public Sector (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)
By Murray J. Horn

Price: $64.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Availability: Usually ships in 10 to 12 days
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com

8 new or used available from $31.25

Average customer review:

Product Description

This book uses a transactions cost approach to explain the key institutional characteristics across the public sector. It defines the distinctive governance, financing and employment arrangements that characterize the common forms of public sector organization: the regulatory commission, the executive tax-financed bureau and the state-owned enterprise. It suggests why these forms are used to perform different administrative functions, and why legislators often leave very important decisions to be resolved at the administrative level.


Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #6010104 in Books
  • Published on: 1995-11-24
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 275 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
"...casts interesting light on some key decisions at the heart of the modern administrative state." Choice


Customer Reviews

Transaction cost theory and public administration5
Transaction cost theory has been applied to public administration since early 1980s. However, most of these researches are not very sucessful, thus making many public administration theorists suspect the promises of using transaction cost theory to public administration. It is at this critical point that Horn prove to us that transaction cost theory is an attractive theory for public administration research. The Horn model is concentrated on the legislature institutional choices. To him, institutional choices of the legislature will be affected by various transaction costs, and the legislature must trade-off among these transaction costs. It is obvious that the Horn model had followed the Williamsonian transaction cost theory rather than North's perspective of transaction cost theory. However, different from other theorists using Williamsonian transaction cost theory to public administration, Horn had not limited himself to the narrowing category of Market and Hierarchy. In sum, this Horn model combined recent work of Williamson (Private and public bureaucracy: perspective of transaction cost theory, 1999)has convinced students like me that transaction cost theory is a productive perspective for public administration research.