Public Administration Review: Sixty Years of Strengthening and Preserving Democracy

• Published date: 01 January 2000
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/0033-3352.00057
• Author: Larry D. Terry
• Date: 01 January 2000

2 Public Administration Review • January/February 2000, Vol. 60, No. 1

Editorial |Larry D. Terry, Editor in Chief

Public Administration Review:

Sixty Years of Strengthening and

Preserving Democracy

administration’s goodness are integral to strengthening and

preserving political regimes.

When ASPA’s founders dedicated the organization to “ad-

vancing the science, processes, and art of public adminis-

tration,” they were making a long-term commitment to en-

sure the goodness of public administration. For sixty years,

Public Administration Review (PA R) has taken an active lead-

ership role in fulfilling this enduring commitment. In doing

so, this journal has participated in the ongoing process of

strengthening and preserving democracy at home and abroad.

The global public administration community takes justifi-

able pride in this significant accomplishment.

Over the years, PAR has addressed a wide range of top-

ics and issues that have advanced the science, processes,

and art of public administration and, in turn, democratic

governance. The consistently high quality of articles by

both academics and practitioners has, in the minds of many,

contributed to PAR ’s success and to its status as the pre-

mier journal of public administration. PAR’s success also

resulted from several other factors as well.

First, PAR has benefitted from the capable leadership

of sixteen past editors-in-chief and eleven managing edi-

tors. From the first editorial team of Leonard D. White

(editor in chief) and Don K. Price (managing editor) to

the most recent team of Irene Rubin (editor in chief) and

Gerald Gabris (managing editor), PAR has prospered,

grown in prestige, and become a respected voice in its

field. These individuals unselfishly devoted time, energy,

and financial resources (institutional and personal) to

ensure that PAR remained responsive to the needs, de-

sires, and aspirations of its readers. Their sacrifices, com-

mitment, and, most importantly, their deep abiding faith

in democratic values, positioned PAR to thrive today as a

valuable, living institution.

The attentiveness and hard work of its distinguished

Board of Editors and other prominent reviewers is another

factor contributing to the PAR’s success. Since its incep-

tion, the journal’s reviewers have provided thoughtful, criti-

cal (and constructive) evaluations of literally thousands of

manuscripts.

In 1940, when the founders of the American Society for

Public Administration (ASPA) conceived Public Adminis-

tration Review, the survival of democratic government at

home and abroad was foremost in the minds of political

leaders and the American public. The rapid spread of to-

talitarianism in Europe, East Asia, and Africa inspired much

thoughtful reflection and soul searching as to the future of

democracy. In many respects, 1940 was a political water-

shed. It was the year that Germany, Italy, and Japan signed

the Pact of Berlin, establishing the so-called Axis pow-

ers—a political and military alliance of convenience in-

tent on creating a “new order.” This was the year that Ger-

many, under the leadership of Reichsführer Adolf Hitler,

occupied Denmark and France, invaded the Netherlands,

Norway, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and conducted an in-

tensive bombing campaign against Britain. This was the

year that Italy’s Fascist premier, Benito Mussolini, ordered

the invasion of Egypt. Finally, 1940 was the year that Presi-

dent Franklin D. Roosevelt, having shattered the no-third-

term tradition by soundly defeating Wendell Willkie in the

presidential election, began the somber task of preparing

the American public for war.

These events and a desire to preserve democracy around

the world were certainly on the minds of ASPA’s founders.

They seem to have taken to heart the sage advice of

Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist No. 27 : “I believe

it may be laid down as a general rule, that their [the

People’s] confidence in and obedience to government, will

commonly be proportioned to the goodness or badness of

its administration” [emphasis added]. If Hamilton’s argu-

ment is taken to its logical conclusion, it is safe to say that

“confidence in and obedience to government” is neces-

sary for the preservation of a political regime’s authority,

and consequently, its continued existence (see DeGeorge

1985; Friedrich 1958a, 1958b, 1972; Flathman 1980; Raz

1980; Selznick 1992). Continuing this line of argument, it

is also reasonable to conclude that the “goodness” of ad-

ministration is inextricably linked to the preservation of a

political regime. If this is indeed true, one can make a per-

suasive argument that organized efforts to ensure