Public Administration: The Interdisciplinary Study of Government

Public administration seeks to develop a comprehensive understanding of the internal structure and functioning of government, in all its complexity, and its interaction with society and its citizens. Public Administration: The Interdisciplinary Study of Government provides an account of the discipline, considering its history, growth, boundaries, and tunderlying assumptions. It tracks the emergence of the field against a background of the expanding conception of the state and the growth of public services, and situates it within the three branches of knowledge - natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. It maps out the sources of knowledge of public administration, and how this is fragmented within the discipline's specializations, the social sciences, and government and society at large. It examines how leading authors map the discipline, the application of different theories, the associated schools of thought and intellectual debates, and the role of knowledge integration. Scholars in public administration have initiated much debate as to whether it should be treated as a science, a craft or profession, or an art. This book argues that to develop a comprehensive understanding of government and its complexity requires a truly interdisciplinary approach.

Table of Contents:
1: Framing the Nature of the Study of Public Administration: Origins, Identity Crises, Maturity, and Conceptual Mapping 2: Science or Wissenschaft: Public Administration among the Three Branches of Knowledge 3: Public Administration and the Fragmentation of its Knowledge Sources: Academic Specialties and Disciplines, Organizational Units, and Societal Organizations 4: Substantive Topics and Comprehensive Conceptual Maps of Public Administration 5: Bogey Man, Doctor's Bag, Artist's Medium: The Dynamic Arena of PA-theory 6: Four Intellectual Traditions in the Study of Public Administration 7: Public Administration's Canon(s) of Integration 8: The Nature of and Intellectual challenges to the Study of Public Administration

About the Author :
Jos C.N. Raadschelders received his Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. His research interests, among others, include administrative history, the nature and intellectual development of public administration, and comparative civil service systems. He is the managing editor of Public Administration Review.

Review :
What is Public Administration?' sparked intense arguments within the field since the famed Waldo-Simon Debates sixty years ago. Professor Raadschelders' landmark treatise does a great service by addressing this fundamental intellectual conundrum in depth. He read everything related to its vast literature, synthesized its significance, and points the way forward with an astonishingly creative 'answer.' His magisterial tome is a 'must read' for serious administrative scholars everywhere. Raadschelders' book is necessary reading for guidance, control, and evaluation of our interdisciplinary field of public administration. This is ambitious since he looks at the past and our intellectual future. It is a courageous book since it does not only emphasize problems such as identity crises, disciplinary tensions, and knowledge fragmentation, but it also discusses 'solutions.' It is a generous book since it supports pluralism. Above all, it is an inspiring and useful book to (re)define our academic strategies and our position vis-à-vis practitioners. Professor Raadschelders' earlier works have provided readers with historical and comparative knowledge of the study and practice of public administration and government. This new work explores the epistemological and ontological foundations of public administration and advances an 'interdisciplinary study of government' as a way for public administration to overcome its disciplinary 'identity crisis.' I enthusiastically recommend this book especially for its historical, global, and philosophical qualities. In this excellent and provacative book, Jos C. N. Raadschelders strives to explain what the academic study of public administration is. Raadschelders's analysis is sophisticated and complex. He avoids such simplifications as viewing the study as merely divided along lines established long ago by Herbert Simon and Dwight Waldo. He draws on American and European public administration and, in the process, demonstrates encyclopedic knowledge of the literature and study of the field. [The book] provides a major service to public administration scholars, researchers, and educators. It should be eagerly read by everyone who wants to know more about what pubic administration is and how its study may be advanced. There is a strong tradition in public administration that reflects on the identity of the field, questions the rigor of the research, and suggests paths moving forward on both fronts. [This book] distinctively contributes to that reflective tradition, developing a thoughtful survey of past debates while adding new and thoughtfully developed insights. The author successfully invites a wide range of participation in the book through an inviting style of writing. [The book] delivers on the promise in the title of mapping the way for interdisciplinary study to expand the understanding of public administration. Raadschelders offers insights for researchers, teachers, and practitioners, as well as mapping a path to generate new discussions, to connect the research across disciplines and traditions, and a deep appreciation of the complexity and challenges in the study and practice of public administration.