Recovering the craft of public administration

Public sector reform has rarely dropped off the political agenda of Western governments, yet the old craftskills of traditional public administration remain of paramount importance. Th e pendulum has swung too far towardthe new and the fashionable reforms associated with New Public Management and the New Public Governance. It needs to swing back toward bureaucracy and the traditional skills of bureaucrats as part of the repertoire of governing. This article discusses the skills of counselling, stewardship, practical wisdom, probity, judgment, diplomacy, and political nous. Although these skills are of wide relevance, the article focuses on their relevance in Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand. It concludes that the next bout of reforms needs to recover the traditional craft skills. It is not a question of traditional skills versus the new skills of New Public Management or New Public Governance; it is aquestion of what works, of what skills fi t in a particular context.