Bureaucracy and public administration

Abstract

This chapter aims to provide an overview of Portuguese public administration and highlight the current challenges it faces as the entity responsible for organizing and providing public services. The chapter begins with a description of the ‘administrative state model’ which has prevailed in Portuguese public administration during the twentieth century. This is followed by a discussion on the late influence of the New Public Management movement of administrative reforms and the complex mix of legal and managerial traits which resulted from these changes over the past four decades. The chapter offers some evidence of the impact of these reforms on citizen perceptions of public service delivery, underlining the role of technological innovation as a key enabler of administrative modernization and democratization. The chapter ends with suggestions of possible directions for future research about Portuguese Public Administration.