ABSTRACT
The history of traditional American public administration can be described in terms of a profusion on the surface of pre-paradigms (pre-paradigms because they are not scientific paradigms), and these can be (and have been) ordered—to give, at a minimum, the impression of orderly progress. Post-traditional public administration theory seeks imaginization, and it includes not only the postmodern but also other elements like epistemic pluralism, critical theory, ethics, philosophy, neuroscience, and economics – transforming the traditional, the mainstream. Post-traditional public administration theory aims for contemplation/imaginization of bureaucracies and all that constitutes the identity and context of governance bureaucracies. The traditional method of explaining the post-traditional would be to describe the key concepts and to note how they can upgrade public administration practice. Readers may wish to consider how useful—or not—post-traditional public administration is for contemplating the usual public bureaucracies. The impetus to public administration practice has also been sometimes positive but also constricted.
