Contemporary developments and transformations in public action—marked by a proliferation of actors, increasing interdependence between sectors, and growing demands for transparency, sustainability, and accountability—require renewed analytical frameworks to understand public management. Traditional models based on rigid bureaucratic structures or efficiency-driven managerial approaches, including many interpretations of New Public Management, appear insufficient to address the complexity of contemporary governance contexts. Responsible and integrated management, the operationalizable theoretical foundation of this collective work, emphasizes the link between accountability and organizational integration. Accountability is seen as the capacity of public organizations and managers to justify their decisions, anticipate consequences, and respond to multiple stakeholders. Integration refers to the ability to coordinate heterogeneous actors, policies, and temporalities without reducing diversity or imposing excessive centralization. The book positions this framework between tradition and innovation, emphasizing that the renewal of public management does not require abandoning institutional and professional legacies, but rather reinterpreting them in light of technological, social, and organizational transformations. Through conceptual analyses, empirical studies, and sectoral cases, the book explores how responsible and integrated management can provide both a practical and analytical framework for governing the complexity of contemporary public action.
