Public sectors throughout the world are facing unprecedented yet similar challenges. On the one hand civil servants have to confront and present solutions to problems as diverse as unsustainable resource consumption and global environmental concerns to the polarization of politics, rapid advances in technology and rising levels of income inequality. On the other, the public sector has to address these problems with fewer resources as governments around the world race to slash funding to the public sector in the wake of the financial crisis.

This thought-provoking volume assesses the nature of public administration in the 21st Century and explores the way in which public sectors have adapted in order to confront the daunting challenges faced by governments around the world. Looking at the different levels of public administration from the local to the supranational level, individual chapters consider the civil service in different countries and explore how the public sector facilitates representation and participation and protects the state from crises ranging from terrorist attacks to economic crashes. The picture that develops is that civil services throughout the world, far from being hollowed out as many observers suggest, are responding to their new mandate by becoming an even larger and even more important part government.