THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AROUND THE WORLD: THE MINNOWBROOK PERSPECTIVE ‐ edited by Rosemary O'Leary, David M. Van Slyke and Soonhee Kim
| Published date | 01 June 2014 |
| Date | 01 June 2014 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2012.02059.x |
| Author | Mike Goldsmith |
516 REVIEWS
THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AROUND THE WORLD: THE MIN-
NOWBROOK PERSPECTIVE
Rosemary O’Leary, David M. Van Slyke and Soonhee Kim (eds)
Georgetown University Press, 2010, 322 pp., \$26.96 (pb), ISBN: 9781589017115
Forty contributors, young and more experienced scholars, consider the future of public
administration in this edited volume. Or do they? In some parts they do; in others they
reveal the persistent inward-looking nature of much North American political science
and public administration. The book aims to ‘capture(s) the soul of public administration’
which ‘will be read by scholars and students of public administration for decades to come’
(p. xiv). How far does it succeed in these two goals and how far does it really address the
study, practice, and future of public administration around the world?
The Minnowbrook perspective refers to a series of three conferences held every
20 years since 1968 in New York State under the aegis of the Maxwell School of Public
Administration at Syracuse University. The Maxwell School has a long and distinguished
history in the study of public administration, and these conferences provide useful
checking points at which to consider the state of public administration as a discipline. This
book reflects the debates and discussions held at the Third Conference in 2008. Whilst a
number of the individual contributions are interesting and repay attention, the attempt at
capturing a world view of the discipline and considering how it should develop in future
largely fails for this reviewer.
First, to tackle such a task requires a broader range of scholars than those included
here. Of the 40, only five are not US based, and, as far as one can judge all are US
trained. There are no European, African, or East European/Russian contributors who
might have brought a different perspective, from the point of view of either theory or
practice. The contributions and references are overwhelmingly US oriented. The one really
comparative piece (Bowornwathana) surveys the field in only 13 pages, and gives no more
than four references to Europe and the EU, although it does cite a number of important
European scholars. Many other contributions cover no more than six or seven pages,
which allows little room for the proper development of arguments (e.g. Van Slyke on
‘Making Public Administration Scholarship Matter’ or Wright on ‘Public Administration
and Management Research’).
Second, the main focus on US experience raises the question of how important that view
is for the rest of the world, a point well made by Poocharoen in her contribution. How
relevant is US (or for that matter, European) theory and practice of public administration
for Asia, Africa, and Latin America? Yilin Hou, again in only six pages, argues for a
‘more global and generic paradigm’, but clearly lacks space to spell out what such a
Public Administration Vol. 92, No. 2, 2014 (512–517)
©2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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