Public Administration: Concepts and Cases 9th Edition

Excellent introduction to the field of public administration. All chapters have an introduction which is very helpful when reading some of the older, more archaic writings of early theorists (Woodrow Wilson's benchmark writing is a foundation to the profession but a painful read!) Case studies in each chapter are appropriate and drive the points home; many are modern studies to which we can relate. All that said, this is not a book I'd pick up for light reading/self-education. It's a *textbook* and works well when you have a professor guiding you! Villanova University's graduate MPA program does just that!

This was required reading for my graduate class, Intro to Public Administraion. The book was far from boring. The author's humour was entertaining and it gave an accurate picture of the realities of public service. I can honestly say this was my favorite to read and I actually looked forward to reading it for my assignments. The themes discussed where so real and honest while also providing a holistic understanding of the history of PA.

Stillman's text is a "professional" level read with much detail. Some essays are a bit wordy, but the insights are very helpful and the cases studies offer very useful situations and circumstances for citizens as well as public officials to consider. The cases study of Columbine High school was not as well written as other case studies and seemed to be biased. The central chapter that is the glue for the whole is the one on communication. I would like to see it expanded and emphasized. I took this course in a summer term, but a regular semester term would allow more thorough investigation of local examples.

This book (Public Administration by Stillman) arrived on time and in good condition. Just some highlights on the pages, as expected. It is serving very well for my college course!

Rented this book for school because I was tired of using the digital copy. Book came in good condition looking brand new.

I wish I'd read the previous reviews, so I wouldn't feel like an idiot everytime I had to wade through the muck of three long, non-sensical chapters for class every week. However, I didn't have a choice of text book, so I'd have to purchase it, regardless.BEWARE the Kindle edition -- most of the case studies, including one I had to present, are missing, due to copyright issues. Fortunately for me, the week I was presenting, there was a book left in the campus bookstore. But I was not wise enough to flip through my Kindle version and check how many other case studies were missing. I'd say it's about 1/2-2/3. The book store no longer has a copy of this and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay another $90 for this POS. If you like paying $10 more for the Kindle version, with less content, for convenience, just make sure you copy the missing case studies as needed.Also, the book can only be read on an iPad, or, (I think) a Kindle Fire. If there's anything worse than reading this book, it's reading it on a high glare screen because someone working for the publisher was an idiot and decided to restrict use.

Decent quality and still very much useable. Just has the very first page ripped and the book is highlighted throughout. However, the highlighted parts are some good points.

This is a really great book and necessary for my college public administration course. It arrived quickly and was very detailed in the steps and dealings involved in running administration in government.