The New Public Administration Texts- Where Are We Going?

• Author: Harry W. Reynolds
• Published date: 01 March 1977
• Date: 01 March 1977
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/027507407701100102
• Published By: Sage Publications, Inc.
• Subject Matter: Articles

21

The

New

Public

Administration

Texts -

Where

Are

We

Going?

HARRY

W.

REYNOLDS,

JR.

University

of

Nebraska

at

Omaha

Textbooks,

so

the

conventional

wisdom

avers,

are

a

mirror

of

a

dis-

cipline.

They

reflect,

or

are

supposed

to

reflect,

the

substantive

dimensions

of that

discipline,

the

directions

in

which

the

discipline

is

moving,

and

the

highlights

of

particular

sub-portions

of that

discipline.

Given

public

adminis-

tration’s

well-known

difficulties

with

determining

these

respective

features

about

itself

in

the

past,

a

worthwhile -

indeed

crucial -

question

is

posed

by

the

spate

of

textbooks,

or

what

purport

to

be

texts,

in

this

field

over

recent

years.

The

question

is

what

the

newer

texts

disclose

in

the

way

of

answers

to

these

oft-debated

topics

in

public

administration.

In

the

para-

graphs

which

follow,

an

attempt

will

be

made

to

examine

a

number

of

these

newer

publications

in

the

light

of

the

criteria

identified

above.

Pertinent

comments

about

such

mundane

considerations

as

readability,

variations

in

authors’

treatments

of

particular

topics

and

noteworthy

stylistic

innovations

have

been

introduced

where

they

have

seemed

warranted.

The

books

under

review

in

this

essay

are:

John

Rehfuss,

Public

Administration

as

Political

Process

(New

York:

Scribner’s,

1973)

William

Morrow,

Public

Administration

(New

York:

Random

House,

1975)

Robert

Fried,

Performance

in

American

Bureaucracy

(Boston:

Little,

Brown,

1976)

James

Davis,

An

Introduction

to

Public

Administration

(New

York:

Free

Press,

1974)

Felix

Nigro

and

Lloyd

Nigro,

Modern

Public

Administration

(4th

edi-

tion ;

New

York:

Harper

and

Row,

1977)

Ira

Sharkansky,

Public

Administration

(3rd

edition;

Boston:

Rand-

McNally,

1975)

R.

V.

Presthus,

Public

Administration

(5th

edition;

New

York:

Ronald

Press,

1975)

Nicholas

Henry,

Public

Administration

and

Public

Affairs

(Englewood

Cliffs,

N.

J.:

Prentice-Hall,

1975)

Robert

Simmons

and

Eugene

Dvorin,

Public

Administration

(Port

Washington,

N.

Y.:

Alfred

Publishers,

1974)

Ivan

Richardson

and

Sidney

Baldwin,

Public

Administration

(Colum-

bus,

Ohio:

Merrill,

1976)

George

Berkley,

The

Craft

of

Public

Administration

(Boston:

Allyn

and

Bacon,

1975)