Abstract
This paper reviews the developmental oscillations in the field of public administration or what scholars usually describe as paradigm shifts up to the one of the current emphasis described as the g...
Highlights
As the debate on the autonomy status of public administration as a field of study, and whether it is more of management or political science remains unresolved, the discipline has continued to establish itself in every intellectual stream of the social sciences since its emergence as field of study
The pioneer epistemic community in public administration (e.g. Goodnow, 1900; Wilson, 1953) who underscored the dichotomy between politics and public administration, and their immediate successors (e.g. Gulick and Urwick, 1937) who moved further from separation to propound the principles of administration, had envisaged a science of administration fully separated from politics, which shall seek to straighten the paths of government, to make its business less unbusinesslike, to strengthen and purify its organization, and to crown its duties with dutifulness (Gale, 1968)
Kauzya and Balogun (2005) observe that though several African countries, Nigeria inclusive, have implemented far-reaching governance and public service reform measures in recent years (these measures have touched almost every aspect of the continent’s political life—from the way governments are elected and changed, through the workings of the three branches of government, to the role that civil society plays in holding state functionaries to account), much more remains to be done to reposition governance and public administration institutions for the emerging challenges
Summary
As the debate on the autonomy status of public administration as a field of study, and whether it is more of management or political science remains unresolved, the discipline has continued to establish itself in every intellectual stream of the social sciences since its emergence as field of study. Paradigm 5: public administration as public administration, 1970–present (NPM) At this stage, there was effort to reestablish the discipline as an autonomous field of study While doing this the focus which, was identified to be on the hierarchical, bureaucracy was shifted to markets and private sector organisations. The traditional or Conventional public administration basically regards the government alone as the autonomous and authoritative actor through its bureaucratic, hierarchical structures and processes as far as public service is concerned; the NPM paradigm was a shift to use the private sector. The governance paradigm, has become a distinctive era or more appropriately orientation in public administration practice and scholars have clearly provided intellectual explanation for why it should currently be the preferred paradigm in public administration theory and practice
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