Proverbs and the Evolution of Public Administration

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Meier, Kenneth J.
• 署名单位: Texas A&M University System; Texas A&M University College Station; Cardiff University
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3352
• DOI: 10.1111/puar.12288
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 15-24
• 关键词: representative bureaucracy; organizational performance; active representation; service motivation; Political control; doctoral dissertation; management; GENDER; POLICY; networks

摘要

Herbert Simon, in his 1946 essay The Proverbs of Administration, indicted public administration as having conflicting and contradictory theories and an absence of a knowledge base that could provide a guide to practice. Simon proposed that public administration define concepts, adopt efficiency as its objective, focus on the study of decision making, and construct models that could predict efficient results. This 75th-anniversary article revisits Simon's essay in light of contemporary public administration. It examines the progress that has been made and what still needs to be accomplished, and it ends with a list of barriers to further progress.