Richard Stillman's Public Administration: Concepts and Cases is perhaps one of the most illuminating books in print on the subject of Public Administration. Presented in a braided format that attempts to provide an academic or theoretical text concerning the administration of public policy, each chapter is followed by a case study applicable to the previous text.

Unfortunately the former tends to read a bit poorly and is hardly as interesting as the latter. There is inherently more gravitas and emotional involvement in a chronological account of events leading up to a preventable mining disaster than there is in, say, Woodrow Wilson's thoughts on converting the best practices of governance into a science. The academic texts, for the most part, have relevance however, and for any serious student of public policy, they rightfully make the cut. There is a measure of literary decompression to be dealt with when switching back and forth between political scientists inside academia--who asked to contribute sections on budgetary processes and intergovernmental relations do their best--and professional writers from the New Yorker or the Atlantic Monthly who are where they are specifically because of their writing prowess.

Which is not to say that the polisci's kill the book. The academic text is not bad; while C. Wright Mills makes a token appearance, it is nowhere near the boring slog of a read that one of his works might be. That said, it must be stated that the case studies inside--provided by a host of sources from The JFK School of Government, Harvard University to the New York Times--are what make this book so fun to read.

The accounts covered run a gamut that ranges from the Centralia Mine Disaster of 1947 to the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger and the events in Waco. With in-depth historical accounts of individuals involved--the correspondence and conversation between them--it demystifies the workings of governmental agencies. To modify a phrase, it lays in the barest of terms the fact that governance isn't done by Guv'mint, it's done by people.

I rate this book at 5 stars simply for what it is. It sets out to illustrate the workings of Public Administration and does so without partisan bias and with a broad scope that enables the reader to not only learn more about events that occurred behind closed doors, but why they occur in general and how. In all of its aims, it succeeds and comes highly recommended from this reader, at the least. ( )