Book review : Godfrey A. Pirotta, Malta : selected essays in governance and public administration

Abstract

Governance encompasses the structures and processes that ensure governing and provide mechanisms by which the governed have to comply to ensure stability, inclusiveness, responsiveness, transparency and accountability. It differs from government; the focus is less on the state and its organisation and more on social dimensions and actions. Public administration is just a component of governance. It is the discipline concerning the implementation of government policy and the preparation of public officers for engagement in the civil service, that is, in the public sector, at various levels of government. The publication Malta: Selected Essays in Governance and Public Administration is a collection of seminal research articles by Godfrey A. Pirotta republished by the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies. This academy, which forms an integral part of the University of Malta, is an outstanding international seat of learning for young diplomats from the Mediterranean and Africa. The majority of papers included in this publication were published either as studies in internationally refereed journals or as chapters in books on politics, public administration and sociology and are grouped into two thematic parts, both focused on Malta. The first consists of critical essays regarding governance read through a historical perspective. The focus of the second part is public administration post 1979, when Malta broke away from its traditional role as a military base and sought to build an entirely new economy. The public administration during British Colonial Malta until 1940 is the theme of another landmark textbook authored by Pirotta (1996).