ABSTRACT
The public administrator is one who, in the language of our Puritan forebears, is responsible for assisting the rest of us in the "covenanting" process. This "covenanting" or "social contracting" is an ongoing process which is carried out at all levels of government through the exercise of citizenship as the public office of the individual member of a democratic society. A public administrator's actions should reflect respect for the public office of citizenship for which he or she bears an obligation, which is prior to any other associated with public employment. An understanding of professionalism in public administration which is appropriate for a democratic society should be one which is grounded in what is described earlier in this paper as a high ethical view of citizenship. If this image of the public administrator as a professional citizen is to be pursued, public administration education has to be a critical component of any strategy for moving in that direction.
