1 Public Management, Autonomy, and Performance: Merging Political and Administrative Notions of Autonomy

2 An extensive literature has developed concerning the political relevance of autonomy in the study of democratic governance. Missing from the discourse is an assessment of the impact autonomy has on the performance of public organizations in which it is exercised. We integrate theoretical perspectives of autonomy from political science and public management research to evaluate how, and to what consequence, public managers within agencies translate granted-autonomy into performance gains and losses. We develop a model of multi-dimensional managerial autonomy and empirically test hypotheses on a data set of several hundred public organizations in the setting of public education. Findings suggest that organizations benefit when managers have autonomy to discriminately detach politics and administration. However, if managers discount their capacity to advocate and shape policies, performance may suffer. A comprehensive managerial strategy requires taking into consideration multiple aspects of autonomy, to the advantage of the organization