From Administration to Management

This chapter adopts an institutional perspective and examines whether the rise of public management as a practice and a field of study has led to an institutional field that is separated from and superior to the institutional field of public administration. An institutional perspective is particularly appropriate because institutions are embedded in historical and cultural contexts. The chapter explains the public administration and public management in the United States. It reviews the institutional history of public administration and public management as academic disciplines in the United States. The chapter explains how public management has emerged as an independent institutional field and to show the extent to which the emergence is rooted in changing government practice. It analyzes whether there are substantive differences between the institutional field and public administration field in terms of their institutional home, research topics, methodology, theoretical orientation, and practical relevance.