ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICE AND THE WANING PROMISE OF PROFESSIONALISM FOR PUBLIC-ADMINISTRATION

For two decades public administration has considered a series of evolving conceptions of professionalism, designed to address some of the field's central concerns. The authors evaluate professionalism's ability to provide practitioners a sense of unity and purpose, to promote virtuous and competent administrative practice, to defend public administration's legitimate institutional role in governance, and to enhance the standing of the field in the eyes of the public and its representatives. They conclude that the professional ideal, even a revised professionalism that avoids explicit claims to autonomous practice, is one that the field should relinquish.