ABSTRACT
David H. Rosenbloom is one of the most distinguished scholars whose work shapes the field of public administration. This entry introduces his major contributions to the field of public administration during the past three decades. As this entry shows, Rosenbloom is best known for his three-lenses framework, also referred to as his “competing perspectives” model, of understanding public administration. In this model, Rosenbloom indicates that public administration incorporates separate perspectives, but is capable of overlapping managerial, political, and legal perspectives. Each of them emphasizes different values, which drive their preferences for organizational formats, treatment of individuals, decision making, budgeting, human resources management, and ways of cognition. This model has found worldwide usage through seven editions of his book Public Administration: Understanding Management, Politics, and Law in the Public Sector, which is a classic and a landmark in the study of public administration. Noteworthy, Rosenbloom has made particularly important contributions to develop the political and legal perspectives of this model. A great many of his publications concentrate on examining critical issues in relation to the political and legal aspects of public administration. These publications greatly enrich understanding of public administration theories and practices in the United States. This entry also includes a brief introduction of Rosenbloom's academic and professional career in the field of public administration.
