Summary :
Peter Aucoin, as a scholar and a student of public administration and democratic governance, had the unique ability of both having his head in the clouds and his feet planted firmly on the ground. He was able to simultaneously conceptualize and theorize in order to consider some theoretical construct or conundrum and to take dirty facts from across countries or time and compare, analyze, and consider them from all angles, drawing out the essential lessons for practical application. When I was clerk of the Privy Council, I needed help in considering the reform of the Public Service Employment Act. So, I put together a first-class group of business, ngo, and public service leaders to advise me in a Public Service Advisory Committee. I, of course, turned to Peter as a scholar and student of public services to participate. He performed the very valuable role of being a bridge between academia and practitioners. His advice was always thoughtful and practical … and, most important, helpful. The title of this festschrift, From New Public Management to New Political Governance, is apt. Peter always took a broad view of public administration and the interaction between politics and governance. He was one of those distinguished interpreters of both bureaucracy and politics. As a political scientist, Peter brought a set of analytic skills that he applied to organizational development, political institutions, and to bureaucratic processes. His work on the New Public Management has always, somewhat deceptively, had a flavour of mixing these elements. Peter’s deconstructing new public management to its essentials and examining its application in a Canadian context allowed Canadian practitioners to import some of the positive elements of npm, while avoiding some of the less useful faddish elements. Peter always went beyond the fads and was never preoccupied with naively applying whatever happened to be in vogue. He attempted to draw the essence out of what was new and what was good in npm. Having developed into an acronym it must be important to some! Peter’s analytic approach, however, allowed for the appropriate distance, which, in turn, allowed for an appropriate scepticism. He knew npm would be helpful in improving government but did not assume that it would be applicable holus bolus; rather, his use of analysis and evidence has allowed him to help improve governance in Canada.

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