journal of public affairs education - NASPAA *The Global Standard ...

Enhancing Professional Socialization Through the Metaphor of TraditionTHEORETICAL APPROACHES TO COMBINING TRADITIONSGiven the utopian nature of ideal-types, rarely does a given scholar advocate atradition of public administration in its ideal-type form. This is because such anapproach would create a “trinitarian cul-de-sac” of public administration theory,where the end state of the politics/administration relationship places democracyat risk through1. Over-empowerment of political micromanagement,2. Over-empowerment of administrative discretion, or3. Disempowerment of both politics and administration altogether(Golembiewski, 1996).These conditions are loosely aligned with the logical ends of the threetraditions discussed here, should they be fully implemented. Perhaps in largepart due to this inevitability, the vast majority of scholarly discussion of publicadministration theory will draw elemental characteristics from two or moretraditions in their ideal-type formulations as presented here. A notable exceptionwould be Lowi’s (1979, 1993) firm defense of the Constitutional traditionthroughout his writings, but such cases are rare.It also has been suggested that there may be conditions under whichdifferences between rival and apparently incompatible traditions may beresolved (MacIntyre, 1988). In fact, much of the theoretical debate withinpublic administration is related to whether or not any of these traditionsshould be primary, or whether two or more can be integrated into someunified, comprehensive theory of public administration in order to improvesocial outcomes. In many cases, a combination represents an attempt toreform the Constitutional order, without actually bringing it into question orcalling for a revolutionary transformation (Stout, 2009). In other cases,blending is an attempt to accommodate what is observed in empiricalreality—that neither people nor organizations tend to display pure ideal typesof any kind. In still other theories, conciliation is attempted among traditionsin order to allow dialectical tensions to persist, by claiming that awareness oftheir problematical or paradoxical characteristics is the best that can beachieved (King & Zanetti, 2005).In what can be called “integrationist approaches” (Stout, 2007), theoristscombine or blend logics into one role conceptualization by taking what isconsidered to be the “best” of all three traditions. As an exemplar, Appleby(1952) called for a “pattern of administrative responsibility” (p.218).Of concern are1. Popular control,2. Humane practice,3. Pluralist tolerance, and4. Responsible and unifying leadership.To ensure all of these elements, the pattern of responsibility must begin withJournal of Public Affairs Education 301