ABSTRACT
The practice of public administration long preceded this study. The enterprise of this field dates from antiquity, centuries before scholars and practitioners recorded, examined, and codified its basic concepts and facets and traced its evolution (Waldo 1980). In fact, the rise of self-awareness in public administration is little more than a century old, marked from the time of Wilson’s (1887) celebrated essay “The Study of Public Administration,” which charted its history, defined its essence, and illuminated its comparative side. This effort was paradigmatic in weaving a heuristic mosaic, but inevitably leaving numerous gaps to be filled by generations of future academics and practitioners who expanded, adapted, and reinterpreted this embryonic field.
