Some Contemporary Th eories of Public Administration 11
Although we cannot control the uses to which public administration theory
will be put, public administrators can oft en infl uence the use of theory. It should
be the aim of good public administration scholarship to arm public administra-
tors with the most reliable available theory. Biology cannot control medicine,
and physics cannot control engineering. But modern medicine wouldn’t amount
to much without biological research and theory, and engineering is deeply de-
pendent on physics for its theory. Researchers and theory builders in public
administration must meet the ultimate and most diffi cult challenge to public ad-
ministration theory: Th ey must do their best to provide reliable theory, always
with the hope that public offi cials will use that theory to make democratic govern-
ment as eff ective as possible. Albert Einstein was once asked, “Why is it that when
the mind of man has stretched as far as to discover the structure of the atom we
have been unable to devise the political means to keep the atom from destroying
us?” He replied, “Th at is simple, my friend, it is because politics is more diffi -
cult than physics” (Herz 1962, 214n). Even though politics is more diffi cult than
physics, politics in the past fi ft y years has managed, so far, to keep atomic energy
from destroying us; indeed, atomic energy has in many ways become a boon to
humankind. Th e question is whether politics can continue to bend atomic energy
to worthy purposes even though such bending is diffi cult.
Insofar as theories of public administration are also theories of politics, the
application of public administration theory is always diffi cult, particularly in the
context of democratic government. Public administration theory is increasingly
sophisticated and reliable, and thereby it holds some promise of continuing to
make important contributions to the day-to-day eff ectiveness of democratic
government.
Some Contemporary Th eories of Public Administration
It is not the purpose of this book to describe an all-encompassing view of public
administration reality or even to present a comprehensive survey of theories
on the subject. Th e succeeding chapters present particular theories or families
of theories that, in the authors’ judgment, have contributed signifi cantly to the
body of knowledge in public administration, have the potential to make such
contributions, or have important heuristic value. Th e selection of theories omits
some important theoretical areas (game theory, administrative law, theories of
ethics). It nonetheless includes a wide enough variety of public administration
theory to illuminate the possibilities and limitations of contemporary theoriz-
ing in the fi eld.
Th e following chapters’ selection of theories and models, subtheories, con-
cepts, research fi ndings, and individual theorists included in each theory or
family of theories may elicit disagreement, even sharp disagreement. Public ad-
ministration is not a tidy fi eld, and no four theorists would presume to tidy it up