Public Administration in America: Why Our Uniqueness Is Exceptional and Important

• Published in: Public administration review 1998-01, Vol.58 (1), p.22-31
• Main Author: Riggs, Fred W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 9130; 9180; 9190; 9540; 9550; American Society for Public Administration; Associations; Civil service; Comparative analysis; Comparative Education; Comparative studies; Developed Nations; Developing countries; Educational administration; Essays; Experimental/theoretical treatment; Federal Government; Foreign Countries; Governance; Government (Administrative Body); Government bureaucracy; Grants; History; International; LDCs; Manycountries; Military officers; Non-profit institutions; Organizations; Political Influences; Political theory; Polities; Presidentialism; Public Administration; Public sector organizations; Separation of powers; SICA Silver Jubilee; Thailand; Third World; U.S.A
• ISSN: 0033-3352; 1540-6210
• DOI: 10.2307/976886

This semi-autobiographical account of the author's experience with the American Society for Public Administration's (ASPA) Comparative Administration Group during the 1960s, and the subsequent evolution of his thinking, sheds light on the status and history of comparative public administration in America. In retrospect, instead of trying to export administrative practices that were not really appropriate in many countries of the post-imperial age, both scholars and practitioners would have done better abroad if they had paid more attention to the analysis of public administration in America, as viewed in a comparative perspective. Had they been able to do that, and if they had also learned more about the constraints and dynamics of politics and administration in the new successor states of the world, they could have been more successful overseas and, at the same time, they would have enhanced the ability of American scholars and practitioners to understand their own system of government.