Every discipline periodically goes through a period of sometimes wrenching reassessment. For public administration, this reassessment has been nearly constant. Americans have always been distrustful of governmental power and, especially, administrative power. They have long believed that public administration is more inefficient and corrupt than private administration. Woodrow Wilson's memorable call to study the importance of running a constitution shows how, even in its earliest days, the modem study of American public administration has struggled for acceptance.
Donald F. Kettl (Sun,) studied this question.