Teaching Global & Comparative Public Administration: An Assessment of MPA Programs Tony Carrizales, PhD, Marist College New York & Aroon Manoharan, PhD, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Global Comparative Public Administration: Are MPA Programs Responding to the Call? Globalization has spurred a growing body of literature on comparative public administration research Increasing role of intergovernmental organizations in addressing global issues such as chronic hunger, poverty, human rights, immigration Renewed focus on national administrative systems This research examines the emphasis placed on global comparative public administration education among MPA/MPP programs in the United States

Global Comparative Public Administration: Are MPA Programs Responding to the Call? The call for a comparative public administration perspective is not new Woodrow Wilson, Frank Goodnow, and Ernst Freund drew upon European experiences to better understand American administration Leonard White’s 1930 book of civil service with an included comparative perspective Robert Dahl’s 1947 article argued for comparative research to conceptually validate the study of public administration

Global Comparative MPA Curriculum ASPA’s first organized section was established in 1973, The Section on International and Comparative Administration Mackelprang and Fritschler’s (1975) article, based on a NASPAA survey of public affairs and administration programs, found that of the 101 programs surveyed, 74 offered courses in “comparative bureaucracy“ Tummala (1998) reported that in 1996, only 14% of NASPAA’s 230 member schools offered an option in comparative study Holzer and Lin (2007) provide an overview of MPA programs in the United States and found 35% of the selected sample of MPA programs had a course addressing Comparative/International Public Administration

Research Questions Has Public Administration answered the call to enhance/ strengthening global and public administration? What are MPA programs doing to educate the next generation of public administrators through a comparative/global point of view? To what extent are MPA programs integrating global and comparative PA into the curriculum?

Methodology Reviewed NASPAA member school’s website (Dec 2015) Direct collection of the data from the school is more accurate than self-reporting surveys Reviewed core, required and elective courses of each schools’ curriculum Reviewed CPA courses content and focus

NASPAA Member and Accredited Schools NASPAA lists 296 members, 25 outside of the U.S. We focus on the 271 U.S. members of which 175 are accredited

Offering Course in Comparative/ Global Public Administration 79 or 45% of accredited schools offer one or more courses in comparative/global PA 28 or 16% of accredited schools require a comparative/ global PA course

Required Course in Comparative/Global Public Administration (NASPAA Member)

Subjects Syllabi Course Descriptions Development 42 43 Accountability, performance monitoring, evaluation 44 22 Local government 21 18 Ethics, corruption, public sector values 30 Budgeting, public finance, or finance 19 10 Policy/program implementation 25 9 Reform 35 Decentralization 14 3 New Public Management 12

Additional Findings Courses cover a breadth of areas: 1) a vast majority addresses governance and policy 2) other issues: ethics, leadership, disaster relief, development, human rights and nonprofits 3) gender relations, energy, conflict resolution

Takeaways About 80% of PA students graduate with no or little int’l or comparative foundation 45% of Accredited programs offer a course in CPA, which is a promising reflection for accredited programs and the direction that may be going. However, only13% of accredited programs and 16% of all member schools require a Comparative or global PA course.

Limitations The data does not indicate the percentage of students taking such courses The research does not address how students might get a foundation in comparative/global PA through other outlets such as internship at int’l organizations such as the UN or through study abroad.

Future Research - Longitudinal Study Research of comparative curriculum has been inconsistent in methodology Replicating this methodology will allow for longitudinal study Be able to compare clear direction of comparative MPA curriculum.

Future Research - International Programs Review International MPA programs accredited with NASPAA Review program with international accreditation bodies of PA programs Assess the content of comparative MPA curriculums with US programs

Thank you Questions?