11
Introduction: Th e Possibilities of Th eory
Why Do We Need Th eory in Public Administration?
All the great human events in history were probably achieved by what we today
would call public administration. Organization and management practices in
collective or public settings are certainly as old as civilization, and signifi cant
changes in those practices tend to accompany historical shift s in mass-scale so-
cial organization and operation.^1 For example, the transition from feudal society
to the extended nation-state was made possible by the centralization of policy,
on the one hand, and the decentralization of policy implementation, on the other
(Tout 1937; Ellul 1955; Chrimes 1952). Th e colonial era would be described the
same way, but on a worldwide scale (Gladden 1972). Th ere are splendid com-
parisons of British, French, Portuguese, Dutch, and Belgian approaches to issues
of colonial centralization and decentralization, the management of courts, and
the organization and management of navies and armies (Gladden 1972, 323–
333). Extensive archaeological research indicates that early Armenian civiliza-
tions were built on rather elaborate forms of administration (Von Hagen 1962;
Prescott 1908; Mason 1957; Morley 1956). In China, the Sung dynasty (a.d. 960–
1279) “maintained substantially the traditional Chinese system of government
and administration. Th e Emperor, who was supreme, was advised and assisted
by a Council of State whose members, varying from fi ve to nine, supervised in-
dividually the several organs of Administration, which were grouped under (1)
the Secretariat-Chancellery, (2) the Finance Commission, and (3) the Bureau
of Military Aff airs” (Gladden 1972, 191; Yutang 1947; Loewe 1966; Balazs 1964;
Weber 1947).
In these and countless other examples, the elemental features of public ad-
ministration permeated social development; indeed, it is argued that civilization
requires the elemental features of public administration (Waldo 1946, 1956; Wil-
davsky 1987; Douglas and Wildavsky 1982). Following Max Weber, the elemental
features of public administration include (1) some basis of formal authority with