Public administration's final exam : a pragmatist restructuring of the profession and the discipline / Michael M. Harmon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harmon, Michael M., 1941-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public administration--United States.

Public administration.

Civil service--United States.

Civil service.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (209 p.)

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Examines why public administration's literature has failed to justify the profession's legitimacy as an instrument of governance. Michael Harmon employs the literary conceit of a Final Exam, first "written" in the early 1930's, in a critique of the field's answers to the legitimacy question. Because the assumptions that underwrite the question preclude the possibility of a coherent answer, the exam should be canceled and its question rewritten. Envisaging a public administration no longer hostage to the legitimacy question, Harmon explains how the study and practice

Contents:

Contents; List of Tables; Preface; Acknowledgments; A Prologue on Adolescence; 1. The Question; 2. Values, Facts, and the Problem of Moralism; 3. Thinking, Doing, and the Problem of Rationalism; 4. Ends, Means, and the Problem of Managerialism; 5. Theory, Practice, and the Problem of Technicism; 6. Rewriting Public Administration's Final Exam; An Epilogue on Maturity; A Postscript on the Personal/Political Nature of Epistemological Choice; Notes; Works Cited; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [175]-185) and index.

ISBN:

0-8173-8135-X

OCLC:

209126881