Abstract

STILLMAN II, Richard J.. Whither American Public Administration?. Gest. polít. pública [online]. 2008, vol.17, n.1, pp.217-238. ISSN 1405-1079.

This paper analyzes two questions: where does United States public administration is going and which would be the best way to build its path toward the future. The author begins discussing through a historical point of view, where it is clear that there are important intellectual confusions. These are not only due to the relatively short existence of the discipline in United States, but also in deeper cultural traditions of such country. Next, the author tries to draw the conceptual boundaries of the discipline and discusses which are its special fields, scientific techniques, methodology, and emergent categories. Last but not least, the paper proposes a particular per-spective regarding the direction that the United States administrative science might take given the lack of a concept of the State (beginning with its constitutional design) which might be taken as a fact for this country, continuing to affecting the United States perspective on public administration.

Keywords : Public administration; State; Education; United States.

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