This open access book presents a topical, comprehensive and differentiated analysis of Germany's public administration and reforms. It provides an overview on key elements of German public administration at the federal, Länder and local levels of government as well as on current reform activities of the public sector. It examines the key institutional features of German public administration; the changing relationships between public administration, society and the private sector; the administrative reforms at different levels of the federal system and numerous sectors; and new challenges and modernization approaches like digitalization, Open Government and Better Regulation. Each chapter offers a combination of descriptive information and problem-oriented analysis, presenting key topical issues in Germany which are relevant to an international readership.

Examines the present situation of Public Administration in Germany Explains the main characteristics and features of decentralized Public Administration Analyses the recent challenges and reforms of the German Public Administration landscape

Autorentext

**Sabine Kuhlmann is Professor of Political Science, Public Administration and Organization at Potsdam University, Germany, Vice President of the IIAS for Western Europe, and Vice-Chair of the National Regulatory Control Council of the German Federal Government. Her areas of research include comparative public administration, public sector reforms, better regulation and local government.   
Isabella Proeller is Professor for Public and Nonprofit Management at the University of Potsdam, Germany. Her areas of research comprise public management reforms, strategic management and performance-oriented control in public administration.
****Dieter Schimanke is former Professor of Public Administration at the Helmut-Schmidt-University in Hamburg, Germany. He became Secretary of State in a state in East Germany after unification and since his retirement, he is Senior Expert in projects of GIZ on reforms of Public Administration (mainly in Eastern Europe and Asia).
** **Jan Ziekow **is Professor of Public Law and the Director of the German Research Institute for Public Administration, Germany, Vice-President and former President of the German Section of IIAS. He is a former Member of the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration, and member of various Government and Parliamentary Commissions and Committees.

Inhalt

1. German Public Administration: Background and Key Issues.- 2. Constitutional State and Public Administration.- 3. Administrative federalism.- 4. The European Context of the German Public Administration.- 5. Federal Administration.- 6. The Federal administration of Interior Affairs.- 7. The Peculiarities of the Social Security System ('indirect state administration').- 8. The administration of the Länder.- 9. Local Self-Government and Administration.- 10. Politics and Administration in Germany.- 11. Administrative Procedures and Processes.- 12. Control and Accountability: Administrative Courts and Courts of Audit.- 13. Civil Service and Public Employment.- 14. Public Finance.- 15. The transformation of public administration in East Germany following Unification.- 16. Administrative Reforms in the Multilevel System: Reshuffling Tasks and Territories.- 17. Institutional Differentiation of Public Service Provision in Germany: Corporatization, Privitization and Re-Municipalization.- 18. Participatory Administration and Co-Production.- 19. Digital Transformation of the German State.- 20. Supplement: Open Government.- 21. The Federal Ministerial Bureaucracy, the Legislative Process and Better Regulation.- 22. Human Resource Management, Performance-Related Pay and Public Service Motivation.- 23. New Steering Model, Performance management, Benchmarking.