Learn more about history of public administration. The information I gathered will help you understand some of the changes of public administration.

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Phase 1 (1887–1926)
The years from 1887 to 1926 explain how the public administration has evolved. The period saw
many reforms including the development of social and behavioral sciences (Management Study
Guide, n.d). The publication of the first textbook on Public Administration by L.D White in 1926
was another significant achievement of the period. The book of Introduction to the Study of
Public Administration took the politics of public administration dichotomy to its logical
conclusion (Introduction to Public Administration, n.d.). The period was also characterized by
politics where administration dichotomy was interconnected to value-fact dichotomy. Public
managers were supposed to deal with the implementation of policies. From this time onwards,
political scientists were in charge of policy making. In summary, the politics/administration
dichotomy gave rise to the value-fact dichotomy (Introduction to Public Administration, n.d).
The field of public administration is important to society because a society cannot exist in an
orderly fashion without some form of public administration. Different authors have stated that
government can exist without legislative and judiciary powers. However, they mentioned that it
cannot exist without public administration. That being said, public administration offers
numerous services to citizens and serves their interests in several ways. At the heart of public
administration is services that are provided to the public (Management Study Guide, n.d). “It is
the administration which ensures the security and protection of life and property of the members
of the society by maintaining proper law and order.” (Management Study Guide, n.d). Therefore,
it is evident that public administration plays a crucial law in ensuring the safety of citizens.
Phase 2 (1927-1937)
Politics/administration dichotomy gave rise to value-fact dichotomy. Due to these changes,
everything connected with Public Administration was considered to be scientific or factual. The
process moved along with the Scientific Management Movement, which continued during the
era of Principles of Administration (Introduction to Public Administration, n.d). Scientific
Management in business schools focused on the Assembly line, while principles of management
were expanded under administrative management schools. One of the most notable books of the
period is the Principles of Management by F.W. Taylor (1991). Along with other books by
authors like Frank and Lillian, Galibreth, the books played crucial law in organizing and defining
the principles of optimal assembly line for maximum efficiency (Introduction to Public
Administration, n.d).
Phase 3 (1938-1959)
This time marked challenges to the dichotomy and challenged the universal principles of
administration. First, some objections were raised against the politics- administration dichotomy.
In addition, it was claimed that administration and politics could never be differentiated as they
are organically connected with each other. Secondly, administrative principles were seriously

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confronted on the ground that they are not logically uniform (Introduction to Public
Administration, n.d).
Even though the disagreement to politics-administration dichotomy started in the late 1930s,
F.M. Marx’s edited volume Elements of Public Administration, published in 1946 contributed
significantly to the disagreement. The fourteen articles of the book, written by practitioners,
addressed the hardships mitigated by a value-free administration. Here, it seems impossible to
differentiate it from the value-laden politics (Introduction to Public Administration, n.d). A
typical example of a value-laden politics is the building of a road which raises the question of the
source of funds to build the road. In his book called introduction to public administration, John
Gans explained administration dichotomy or theory of politics.
Multiple challenges were linked with the Universal Principles of Administration. Unfortunately,
the latest challenge almost went unobserved. In the book “The Functions of the Executive’”,
published in 1938, Chester Bernard challenged the validity of the principles. His solution was
neither implemented even though he was the President of New Jersey Bell Telephone Company
nor his academic credentials were not immediately acknowledged (Introduction to Public
Administration, n.d). Next year, Robert Dahl also published his article “The Science of
Administration: Three Problems”. In the article, Robert Dahl discussed three ideas to defend his
argument that there cannot be any universal principle of administration. His arguments were the
following:
1. Introduction to Public Administration (n.d) explained that “There are values contending for
pre-eminence in any organization. It is therefore, not possible to have value free scientific
principles of administration having universal applications.”
2. “Administration is carried out in human organizations having human beings who have
differing personalities. It is, therefore, difficult to find principles, which can be applicable to
all administrative situations.” (Introduction to Public Administration, n.d).
3. “The environment or social framework of administration differs from country to country and
in the same country from organization to organization. It is, therefore, not possible to devise
universal principles of administration applicable to all such situations.” (Introduction to
Public Administration, n.d).
Phase 4 (1950–1970)
A limited number of public administrationists decided to revolutionize the conceptual
connections of Public Administration with mother discipline of political science. They justified
their arguments based on the following two points:

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There was a connection between the two in Public Administration as a way of creating the
internal stage of the process. For example, “the formulation of public policies within public
bureaucracies and their delivery to the policy.” (Introduction to Public Administration, n.d). On
the other hand, Introduction to Public Administration (n.d) said that “Political Science, on the
other hand was thought to provide the external stage of the process; i.e. considering the pressures
in the polity generating political and social change”.
Secondly, they feared treating Public Administration as a pure science would make it loose its'
social and political realities. With this, the focus would be too narrow. Thus, “They were aware
of the inadequacy of the Principles of Administration and were afraid that pure science of public
administration would exclude from their purview richest sources of enquiry, viz., public interest,
human values and normative political theory.” (Introduction to Public Administration, n.d).
Those involved in Public Administration wanted to reconnect with Political Science, the mother
discipline. However, this group was not interested in welcoming back those in public
administration (Introduction to Public Administration, n.d). During this period, even the position
of Political Science was rather at low level and it was taken as a junior member of the social
sciences. On the side of political science, Public Administration was treated with high respect.
Political scientists were indifferent and hostile to the Public Administration as they ignored to
include Public Administration in reports they made in 1962, for the Committee of Political
Science and in 1967, during the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association.
“In 1962, the Comparative Administration Group (CAG) of the American Society of Public
Administration received financing from the Ford Foundation. During the heydays of the
Comparative Administration (1960-70), the membership of CAG grew to more than 500 under
the leadership of Fred W. Riggs.” (Introduction to Public Administration, n.d). It was that time
that comparative and development of administration begun to evolve (Introduction to Public
Administration, n.d). The main features of Comparative Administration were well explained by
Riggs. In addition, Riggs said that it tries to build administrative theory by being ecological, and
empirical. Comparative Public Administration is often called cross-cultural public administration
because it has the most important of its ecological (Introduction to Public Administration, n.d).
New Public Management begun in 1968, where Waldo funded a conference of young public
administrationists. The proceedings were communicated in 1971 in book called The New Public
Administration: The Minnow Book Perspective. The conference de-emphasized the efficiency in
public administration and traditional aspects of economy (Introduction to Public Administration,
n.d).
Phase 5 (after 1970)
During this time, the Public Administration discipline has demonstrated a significant
improvement in building its identity. In this pursuit, it has taken two directions. The first one was
to utilize the science of administrative route to learn why and how decisions were made. So,

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many more refined techniques of management have also been taken from the sciences of
management and applied to public administration (Introduction to Public Administration, n.d).
The second is that an attempt has been created to define public in public administration, with
distinction between private being blurred and public. Here, many Public Administrationists have
confirmed their view that the meaning of public in public administration stands for public
interest. The public interest concept and its implementation gives a clear meaning of what public
administration is, and without public interest in mind, the science of administration could be used
for something bad that would not give any positive outcome in the future (Introduction to Public
Administration, n.d). On the another hand, the progress of defining the meaning of public
interest, public affairs and prescribing for public policy has been too slow. Fortunately, Public
Administration became its own discipline. The National Association of Schools of Public Affairs
Administration (NASPAA) was founded in 1970 and originated in Council in Graduate
Education for Public Administration founded in 1950 by a small group of graduate programs.
That is how the administrative science with a focus on public interest has evolved overtime
(Introduction to Public Administration, n.d).
A brief explanation of how public administration has changed in recent years
Technological advancement is now being a driving force to uplift the ways of communication.
The occurrence of public reforms before the mid-1990s was normally related to the challenges of
an industrial world that was in transition (Bourgon, n.d). The use of social media and fast
communication has impacted public administration because today, information, data and content
can be shared and transmitted and instantaneously around the world to be reassembled in
unpredictable ways. The level of social networking has been increased today and it allowed the
people to participate in the government. For instance, a Brazilian citizen can use an Internet blog
to cooperatively give a new framework for Internet governance. The use of social networking
has made China, India and Brazil as global economic engines by increasing transformation of the
geo-political worlds that ensued (Bourgon, n.d).