PUBLIC-ADMINISTRATION, A POLITICAL ADMINISTRATIVE DICHOTOMY - A NEW CANADIAN DIRECTION FROM AMERICAN HISTORY

The subject, a source of long standing debate among theoreticians and practitioners in public administration, is revisited in an interesting and challenging way. In the face of a changing decentralized government role in many parts of the world, the author presents a modified classical position that proposes to deal with the impact of this on the public service. Canada and the Canadian public service are attempting to re-establish their roles in this new milieu. The author argues for a new role for public administration by drawing from an historical development of the field and introducing new arguments to support changing needs.