New Directions for Public Administration

• DOI: 10.1177/106591296001300356
• Published date: 01 September 1960
• Date: 01 September 1960
• Subject Matter: Articles

850

COMMUNICATIONS

New

Directions

for

Public

Administration

G.

HOMER

DURHAM*

*

University

of

Utah

The

improvement

of

public

administration

appears

to

have

been

dropped

from

the

American

agenda.

The

magnificent

labors

of

the

Hoover

Commission

and

their

many

task

forces

seem

exhausted.

Nine

American

governors

who

toured

the

U.S.S.R.

during

the

summer

of

1959

were

impressed

with

the

scientific

(and

other)

competence

found

there.

Soviet

public

administration,

to

be

sure,

carries

the

entire

burden

of

Soviet

society,

including

science,

art,

and

all

enter,

prise.

American

public

administration

carries

only

an

assigned

share

of

American

enterprise.

But

the

shares

assigned

are

critical

in

their

importance:

defense,

highways,

phases

of

health,

welfare,

education,

and

public

safety.

It

is

within

the

states

that

the

need

for

improvement

is

especially

critical

in

the

United

States.

Few

clarion

voices

are

heard

since

the

&dquo;little

Hoover

Com-

mission&dquo;

days

calling

for

challenging

improvement.

The

reason

is

simple.

It

is

an

American

characteristic

to

place

more

reliance

on

private

than

public

re-

sources.

But

we

should

not

forsake

possible

improvement

in

any

field.

There

was

a

time

when

eliminating

spoils

from

the

federal

service,

an

epi-

sode

in

state

government

(such

as

the

Illinois

reorganization

of

1917),

the

de-

velopment

of

city

managers

in

a

number

of

remarkable

cities,

absorption

of

the

behavioral

sciences,

were

thought

to

represent

the

frontiers for

the

improvement

of

public

administration.

International,

intercultural

experience

now

constitutes

the

significant

current

frontier.

The

public

administration

efforts

in

the

Inter-

national

Cooperation

Administration

alone

provide

ample

demonstration

of

this.

Consider

seven

hundred

eager

men

and

women

studying

at

a

single

center

for

public

administration

in

Indonesia!

Many

of

these

people

are

studying

at

the

level

of

clerkships.

But

there

is

some

truth

in

the

adage

that

clerks

&dquo;can&dquo;

take

care

of

certain

administrative

matters

&dquo;after

doctors

have

agreed

on

prin-

ciples.&dquo;

This

international

frontier,

and

the

new

dimension

imposed

on

American

public

administration

in

the

last

fifteen

years,

calls

for

new

directions.

One

of

these

is

a

change

in

education

for

public

administration

in

the

American

uni-

versities.

The

other

must

be

sought

in

the

American

administrative

system

it-

self.

Education

for

public

administration

appears

to

have

fallen

into

a

decline.

Engineering,

medicine,

psychology,

mathematics,

and

the

physical

sciences

de-

mand

the

strong

allegiance

of

students

- in

contrast

with

the

state

of

public

administration

three

decades

ago.

Institutions

still

flourish.

Broader,

intercul-

tural

approaches

characterize

their

faculties,

curricula,

and

students.

But

the

many

American

institutions

which

proudly

developed

schools,

bureaus,

institutes,

and

graduate

training

programs

in

the

thirties,

now

seem,

with

certain

remark-

able

exceptions,

languid

in

contrast,

for

example,

with

engineering

or

psychology.

Education

for

public

administration

may

have

its

greatest

current

opportunity

in