COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: GOVERNING IN AN ERA OF COMPLEXITY
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Contemporary governments operate in environments characterized by volatility, uncertainty, interdependence, and rapid change, exposing the limitations of traditional public administration models grounded in hierarchy, linear causality, and centralized control. This article advances the argument that public administration is best understood as a Complex Adaptive System (CAS). Drawing on complexity science and integrating insights from administrative theory, governance networks, resilience studies, and adaptive management, the paper examines how public sector institutions, policymaking processes, and governance arrangements evolve through nonlinearity, emergence, self-organization, feedback, and adaptation. It demonstrates that administrative behavior and policy outcomes arise from dynamic interactions among diverse actors across multiple levels and sectors rather than from top-down design alone. By reframing public administration as an adaptive and learning-oriented system, the article provides a more realistic framework for understanding governance under conditions of uncertainty, crisis, and transformation. The CAS perspective offers important implications for administrative leadership, institutional design, innovation, accountability, and crisis governance, while also acknowledging the normative and practical challenges of applying complexity theory in democratic governance contexts.
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References
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