Why Can't We Resolve the Research Issue in Public Administration?

Nearly 50 years ago, in a now classic issue of the Public Administration Review, Robert Hutchins and William Mosher debated whether schools should be established to train people in public administration. Hutchins, then president of the University of Chicago, took a negative view. He argued that public administration is too variable a field to lend itself to systematic exploration. Mosher, then dean of the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, argued in the affirmative. His words are worth recalling: