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The unassailable principle: why luther gulick searched for a science of administration

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  • Alasdair Roberts

Abstract

Luther Gulick's two contributions to the Papers on the Science of Administration are often regarded as a statement of the “orthodoxy” in the field of public administration in the pre-war period. This paper challenges this view. It argues that the two basic claims in Gulick's work--the notion that public administration could be considered as a science, and that field could be studied without regard to politics--were widely contested throughout the 1920's and 1930's. Gulick adhered to these claims in part because they were useful in protecting a young and weakly-institutionalized field against powerful critics. By the late 1930's, academics in public administration may have confronted a dilemma: the position staked out by Gulick and others, while essential to the development of the field, was regarded by many within the field as being intellectually untenable.

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  • Alasdair Roberts, 1998. "The unassailable principle: why luther gulick searched for a science of administration," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2-4), pages 235-274.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:lpadxx:v:21:y:1998:i:2-4:p:235-274
    DOI: 10.1080/01900699808525305
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