Challenges to the Practice and Theory of Public Administration in Europe

Over the past two decades the practice of public administration has moved away from a monocentric understanding of the nature of policy-making and implementation towards a pluricentric one. Since the European Union conforms even less closely to a monocentric model of bureaucracy than do the government structures of member states, pluricentric theories have a particular relevance to European Union administration since they offer the possibility of devising new methods of giving direction to government in pluricentric systems. This paper offers a critical review of the analytical and empirical claims of these new models of government steering and control, their normative problems and the extent to which they present an answer to the challenges for the future of public administration in Europe.