PUBLIC-ADMINISTRATION, SOCIAL-SCIENCE, AND POLITICAL ASSOCIATION

Public administration writers have placed considerable faith in the po wer of social science to improve the practice of public administration . This article argues that such faith derives from their vision of the state as a purposive association However because we live in what is e ssentially a civil association rather than a purposive association, th ere are severe limits on the knowledge that social science can provide for practice. Public administration inquiry, it is concluded needs to devote more attention to the nature of the civil association in which it operates, particularly in regard to our constitutional system of g overnance.