ABSTRACT
The case method has long been one of the most popular approaches followed in public administration research. Whelan (1989) traced the approach back to 1948, when a planning committee was formed at Harvard University to develop guidelines for applying the method to research in public administration. Under the leadership of Harold Stein, the original committee was renamed the Inter-University Case Program (IUCP) in 1951. The IUCP published a text with twenty-six cases one year later. In the introduction to that casebook, Stein (1952) defined the public administration case as "a narrative of the events that constitute or lead to a decision or group of related decisions by a public administrator or group of public administrators" (xxvii).
