ABSTRACT
The appropriate role of the public in public administration has been an active and ongoing area of inquiry, experimentation, revolution, and controversy since the birth of this nation. The contemporary movement to examine the role of the public in the process of administrative decision making has come about in response to problems in the latter half of this century and as a result of concern on the part of citizens, administrators, and politicians over citizen discouragement and apathy (Box, 1996; Putnam, 1995; Timney, 1996; Thomas, 1995). As both citizens and their leaders have noticed, “participation through normal institutional channels has little impact on the substance of government politics” (Crosby, Kelly, and Schaefer, 1986, 172).
