The relevance of administrative innovation and leadership in public management and public policies

Abstract

Our current complex and diverse society is the result of its multifaceted reality, also called on occasion a liquid, postindustrial, postmodern, digital, or knowledge-based society, but it conclusively describes the constant evolution and adaptation that Public Administrations must face. For this reason, no single and independent variable can explain the current social reality or public policies; the current challenge being the study of public policies in a systematic, comprehensive and holistic manner. In this study, we aim to highlight and signify two variables that we believe are the most significant for the study and analysis of public policies, namely political elites and administrative innovation. Both variables must relate, in turn, to all the other aspects to be considered, and especially to the context in which public policies are implemented. Public policies, however, must also be analyzed and fit within the public sphere (Habermas, 1999), and in a context of globalization that has gone beyond the “Westphalian” model of the State, and the utopia of a cosmopolitan or global government and justice (Held, 1995) (Habermas, 1999, 2002) (Rawls, 2006). Democracy currently requires not just voting and representation; but reflection, deliberation, transparency and evaluation.