Trends in the Study of Public Administration: Empirical and Qualitative Observations from Public Administration Review, 2000–2009

Abstract

What are the apparent research and methodological trends in PAR’s content over the past decade? From the perspective of the journal’s 70‐year history, with its aim to “mesh” practitioner and academic knowledge creation, topical coverage since 2000 reflects striking continuity, emphasizing many of the “bread and butter” administrative issues such as planning, human resources, budgeting, and public management. A marked increase in coverage is apparent in the application of more sophisticated quantitative statistical methodology, as well as in the number of female authors, while the number of practitioner authors declined sharply. Throughout the first turbulent decade of the twenty‐first century, three intellectual themes stood out: evaluations of New Public Management, connections between practitioners and academicians, and responsiveness to immediate social, economic, and political challenges. Given the constant demand for usable knowledge, scholars seem to have marginalized attention to the historical context and epistemological foundations of the study. The central challenge in the years ahead will be to effectively use research methods in response to the big questions of government and society that defy measurement. Since many [empiricists], especially the younger, do not know very much about epistemology, they tend to be quite dogmatic about the one set of canons that dominate them. —C. Wright Mills, 1959

Understanding e-government research

“…Similarly, in the field of public administration, there has been a great deal of research, leading to lively debate and discussion network-focused research in the public administration (Lecy et al, 2014;Raadschelders and Lee, 2011;Vogel, 2014).…”

An Assessment of Recent Authors and Authorship Patterns in Taiwan's Public Administration Research

“…While some scholars examined doctoral dissertations in the PA field to answer the W questions (e.g., Adams & White, 1994;Brewer et al, 1999;Cleary, 2000;McCormick & Rice, 2001;White et al, 1996), many concentrated on academic journal publications instead. For instance, some scholars used content analysis to find the trend of papers accepted in a single journal, such as Public Administration Review, arguably the most widely recognized PA journal in the United States (e.g., Cooper, 1990;Stallings & Ferris, 1988; for a recent review, see Raadschelders & Lee, 2011). On the other hand, other scholars chose to include many academic journals in their analyses.…”

Promoting State-of-the-Art Methods in Public Management Research

“…A number of scholars have argued that the field of public management is methodologically underdeveloped as compared to other disciplines (Kettl 1995;Gill and Meier 2000;Raadschelders and Lee 2011). Recently, editors from leading public administration journals have offered ideas for improvement.…”