ABSTRACT
In contemporary developed societies, knowledge in many domains and technology-related skills are requisites of influence and bases of power. This chapter is concerned with one dimension of societal capacity, that of public administration professionalism. Like professional communities generally, the public administration community has been aware of the importance of professional recognition and has sought the status, prestige, and autonomy accorded other fields. Initial studies in the post World War II years involved historical analyses and case studies of individual professions; subsequent work focused on such topics as specific criteria of professionalism; stages of the process of professionalism, and critical events in the push toward professionalization. If the information asymmetry is sufficiently serious, government may provide information to parties in need or support nongovernmental efforts to reduce the asymmetry. Greater federal penetration of the state–local sector resulted from several factors, three of which were paramount: The elasticity of the income tax exceeded those of sales and property taxes.
