The Study of Public Administration in Times of Global Interpenetration: A Historical Rationale for a Theoretical Model

This article offers a historical interpretation of the role of the administrative state in the construction of social order and articulates the foundation of a theoretical model for the study of the relationship between globalization and public administration. The author contends that the study of public administration in times of global interpenetration requires a reinterpretation of the administrative state at a historic moment when profound changes are underway in conventional understanding of the general interest, of social responsibility, and of the relationship between the market and the state. In order to actively participate in building the new structures of social relations that globalization is bringing about, the discipline of public administration must develop its theoretical capacity to transcend the ahistorical, voluntaristic, instrumental, parochial, and state-centered nature of its approaches and explanations.