Post-progressive public administration: lessons from policy networks
- 54(4), Jul-Aug 1994, p.378-86
Will progressivism endure as the conceptual foundation for public administration? Traditional progressivism, with its characterstic hierarchical control, scientific management and neutral competence, allows public administrators little room to use discretion or to process political claims. Though the progressivist model continues to have legitimacy, policy network models more accurately account for use of discretion. First, a network model premised on economic utility explains events better than does traditional progressivism. Secondly, a social-constructivist model (in which network participants influence one another and make sense together) has normative advantages over both progressivism and the economic exc