ABSTRACT
The emergence of government corporations and the modem history of public administration are two sides of the same coin. Government corporations began with the rise of the administrative state in the 1920s; their numbers increased dramatically during the 1930s when public service generally gained significance; they assumed social functions like many other government agencies during the 1960s; they joined various public-sector organizations in recasting themselves as instruments for economic development in the 1980s; and they experienced the pressures of privatization and downsizing that occurred throughout the public and private sectors in the 1990s.
