Public administration theory

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Public administration theory is the amalgamation of history, organizational theory, social theory, political theory and related studies focused on the meanings, structures and functions of public service in all its forms. A standard course of study in PhD programs dedicated to public administration, public administration theory often recounts major historical foundations for the study of bureaucracy as well asepistemological issues associated with public service as a profession and as an academic field. Important figures of study include: Max Weber, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Luther Gulick, Mary Parker Follett, Chester Barnard, Herbert A. Simon, and Dwight Waldo. In more recent times, the field has had three main branches: new public management, classic public administration and postmodern public administration theory. The last grouping is often viewed as manifest in the Public Administration Theory Network (PAT-NET) and its publication, Administrative Theory & Praxis.

Selected works in the history of public administration theory

Northcote-Trevelyan Report, 1853 Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, 1883 "The Study of Administration," Woodrow Wilson, 1887 "Politics as a Vocation," Max Weber, 1918 "Bureaucracy," Max Weber, 1922
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Brownlow Committee report, 1937 The Functions of the Executive, Chester Barnard, 1938 "The Lack of a Budgetary Theory," V.O. Key, Jr., 1940 Bureaucracy, Ludwig von Mises, 1944 Administrative Behavior, Herbert A. Simon, 1947 The Administrative State, Dwight Waldo, 1948 TVA and the Grass Roots, Philip Selznick, 1949 The Forest Ranger, Herbert Kaufman, 1960
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"The Science of Muddling Through," Charles E. Lindblom, 1959 The Politics of the Budgetary Process, Aaron Wildavsky, 1964

Democracy and the Public Service, Frederick C. Mosher, 1968 Servant Leadership, Robert K. Greenleaf, 1977
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The Intellectual Crisis in American Public Administration, Vincent Ostrom, 1973

"Public and Private Management: Are They Fundamentally Alike in All Unimportant [1] Respects?," Graham T. Allison, 1980

Street-Level Bureaucracy, Michael Lipsky, 1980

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The Case for Bureaucracy, Charles Goodsell, 1983 "The New Economics of Organization," Terry M. Moe, 1984 Refounding Public Administration, Gary Wamsley et al., 1990 The Public Administration Theory Primer, H. George Frederickson and Kevin B. Smith, 2003