Paradigms of Public Administration

Abstract

Public administration again is examining itself.1 Given the history of the field, this exercise probably is a sign of health. While self-scrutiny can be overdone-the late mathematician, John von Neumann, once described the state of a discipline that had become far too involved with self-study by coining the term "baroquism"-a reexamination by public administrationists of where the field has been and where it is going appears worthwhile. As an intellectual enterprise, public administration has reached a point of radical departure from its own past. It is my purpose in this article to: (1) sketch the development of the field by describing four broad paradigms of American public administration, (2) speculate on what the emerging paradigm of public administration may turn out to be, and (3) attempt to justify why it is mandatory that public administration "come into its own" as an identifiable, unique, and institutionally independent field of instruction, research, and practice.