Comparative Administration

A fter ten years away in the far country of academic administration, I should probably not have expected the once familiar territory of comparative administration to look the same upon return. Even so, I have not yet fully recovered from the shock of setting foot again on what at first seemed familiar shores and finding that a terrain generally viewed as full of promise a decade ago now seems to be regarded by its inhabitants and their neighbors as having failed to live up to its potential as a land of milk and honey. Reassessment of the status of comparative and development administration has become a common endeavor of late. I add this report because perhaps a recent returnee may view things somewhat differently than either new arrivals or early frontiersmen who have stayed around to become old settlers. A change of mood is unmistakable. The years of the late 1 960s can accurately be described as the heyday of comparative administration-the time of greatest vitality, vigor, influence, etc.. During these years, students of comparative administration and development administration demonstrated an amazing productivity, and their field of interest grew rapidly il glamour and reputation, with the Comparative Administration Group (CAG) under the leadership of Fred Riggs at the core of all this activity. Details as to the range of maximum undertakings and subsequent curtailments have been reviewed elsewhere,2 making it clear that recent years have been for the comparative administration movement a period of lessened support and lowered expectations. The exuberance of CAG's heyday has been replaced by a mood of introspection. Individuals long identified with CAG have joined earlier detractors and younger scholars in a reassessment of the past accomplishments, and the outlook for the future of comparative administration as a focus of study and action. The resulting debate is essentially one between those who express a basically negative judgment about overall accomplishments, and those who react by pointing to what they consider to be evidence of substantial fulfillment of earlier promise

Administration (probate law · Political science · Accounting and Organizational Management · International Development and Aid · Law · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research

• Renewing the Study of Comparative Administration

  Jong Sup Jun•Public Administration Review•1976

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• Empirical Theory and Development Administration

  J Fred Springer•Public Administration Review•1976

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• Two Decades of Public Administration in Developing Countries

  William J Siffin•Public Administration Review•1976

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• Synthesis and Relevance in Comparative Public Administration

  Jamil E Jreisat•Public Administration Review•1975

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