ABSTRACT
Over two decades have passed since Dwight Waldo characterized public administration as suffering from a ‘‘crisis of identity.’’(1) Since that time other scholars have viewed public administration’s dilemma as an ‘‘intellectual crisis’’(2) a ‘‘crisis of legitimacy,(3) or a ‘‘paradigmatic quandary.’’(4) The implication of these scholarly concerns is the same. Public administration is characterized by the lack of a comprehensive theoretical framework or intellectual map to guide the field’s development.(5)
It is difficult for contemporary scholars of American public administration to imagine a field characterized by harmony over theory and direction. However, orthodoxy reigned supreme during the field’s early period as agreement existed regarding the theoretical framework that should guide research and teaching. With the politics-administration dichotomy as the central theoretical concept, early scholars pursued a science of administration in a quest for universal principles of management. Once discovered, the application of these principles would result in efficient management-the yardstick of ‘‘good’’ administration.(6)
By the post-World War II era this traditional theory was devastated by a three-prong attack. From an empirical perspective Herbert Simon argued that at times these principles led to contradictory management recommendations and were merely ‘‘proverbs.’’(7) A normative critique of traditional theory was articulated by Dwight Waldo who charged that the scientific method and goal of efficiency are not value-neutral as had been assumed, and should not be the only source for values of import for public administration.(8) From a practical viewpoint, the applied World War II experience informed scholars that politics and administration clearly are intertwined,(9) thus traditional theory was built on an unrealistic conceptualization of administration’s role in American democracy.(10) These critiques left the field without theoretical direction and proved more devastating to public administration than scholars could have anticipated.
