ABSTRACT
The elemental features of public administration permeated social development; indeed, it is argued that civilization requires the elemental features of public administration. The practices of public administration are, then, as old as civilization and essential to the development of civilization. Although the practice of public administration is very old, the formal study of public administration and the elaboration of public administration theory are very new. In public administration theory, issues of precision versus generality are important. The meaning of theory in public administration is more than just a question of how rigorous the measurement and how precise the observation are. Public administration is not a tidy field, and no four theorists would presume to tidy it up in the same way. The authors can only hope that their ordering of public administration knowledge and theory will stimulate debate and the subsequent refinement of theoretical categories.
