ABSTRACT
Few true administrative experiments funded and operated by a public agency at the federal level have been conducted in the United S tates’ bureaucracy.* Especially rare are experiments de signed to alter the day-to-day procedures and practices adhered to by one or more agencies. Certainly programs or procedures have been labeled as experimental or innovative (especially many of the Great Society programs of the 1960s), bu t very few such “experim ents” adhere to the principles of experim en tal or quasi-experimental design. Such experimental “interfer-
ence” in the day-to-day operations of a busy agency is usually considered to be disruptive and unacceptable.
