Stars aren't stupid, but our methodological training is: A commentary on Jeff!Gill and Ken!Meier's article public administration research and practice: A methodological manifesto

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: DeLorenzo, L
• 署名单位: Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Tempe
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH AND THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1053-1858
• DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a003491
• 发表日期: 2001
• 页码: 139-145

摘要

Jeff Gill and Kenneth J. Meier argue in their J-PART article Public Administration Research and Practice: A Methodological Manifesto that there is a crisis in public administration research. Public administration lags woefully behind political science and similar social scientific fields in its methodological sophistication. Part of the problem, they contend, is the misuse of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST); they suggest that NHST be abandoned altogether. They promote other methodological approaches that might be more useful to public administration research. This rejoinder supports their push to use alternative and more sophisticated methods in public administration research and adds that data visualization techniques, including the use of GIS, should be added to their list of valuable techniques. However, NHST testing should not be wholly abandoned because of misuse and ignorance. Instead, it is proposed here that the quality and focus of methodological training in public administration programs be improved and that those who work in the field develop a consensus on just what quantitative basics PA students should know.