PUBLIC-ADMINISTRATION IN SEARCH OF A THEORY - THE INTERDISCIPLINARY DELUSION

Public administration has, during recent decades, been widely held to be a study in disarray, without an integrating theory, neither a disci pline nor a component of a discipline. The orthodox solution is to aff irm that it is an interdisciplinary study, requiring no central theory . The study should not and cannot be founded in a single discipline. T his essay examines and challenges the case for public administration a s an interdisciplinary study. It suggests politics as the discourse in which public administration most appropriately finds its place.