Public administration theory a futurist vision

• Published in: International journal of public administration 1998-01, Vol.21 (12), p.1667-1757
• Main Author: Riggs, Fred W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Future; FUTURE (PAST AND PRESENT ATTEMPTS TO DEPICT IT); Organization theory; Public Administration; SCHOLARLY ENDEAVORS AND REVIEWS OF SCHOLARSHIP; Theory; THEORY BUILDING OR THEORETICAL APPROACH; Trends; UNITED STATES, 1945 TO PRESENT
• ISSN: 0190-0692; 1532-4265
• DOI: 10.1080/01900699808525366

As the world becomes increasingly interdependent, Americans interested in public administration will begin to realize that it is a universal phenomenon and field of inquiry that attracts the attention of researchers and teachers in all countries of the world. This will lead them to stop equating American governance with Public Administration. They will come to see that, in a comparative frame of reference, American bureaucracy, its administrative practices and political functions are quite unique. Comparative Public Administration as a special focus of study will disappear because all administrative studies must be comparative, and "American Public Administration" will gain recognition as one of many parochial foci for research as a country-specific emphasis. Before this shift in perspective can gain widespread acceptance in America, however, the relevant work of non-American scholars will have to become more generally read in America, and the distinctively American conditions that led to the origin of this field and its subsequent dissemination on a global basis must be recognized. Among the specific points that this paradigmatic shift will highlight are the following: the reasons why bureauphilia and bureauphobia persist in a context marked by pressure to make administrative studies and performance non-political and to divorce "politics" from "public administration;" the vain effort to gain recognition for Public Administration as either a profession or a discipline; the institutional implications of this false dilemma; the effects of focusing on career civil servants while paying scant attention to other bureaucrats, namely military officers, partisan appointees, retainers and consultants; and the causes and consequences of the American bureaucracy's semi-powered status.