The purpose of the John Gaus Award and Lectureship is to recognize
“scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public
administration.” That tradition has a long and honorable history.
Many of the presidents of the American Political Science Association were
scholars of public administration (Frank J. Goodnow, Woodrow Wilson, W. W.
Willoughby, Leonard White, Luther Gulick, Pendleton Herring, Emmette S.
Redford, Carl J. Friedrich, James Q. Wilson, and Matthew Holden, Jr.) and
several others made contributions to the literature (V. O. Key, Jr.,
Charles S. Hyneman, Robert A. Dahl, Aaron Wildavsky, and Elinor Ostrom).
Yet a visitor from another planet studying political science and public
administration might conclude that these tribes have evolved into two
distinct species.Prepared for presentation
as the John Gaus Distinguished Lecture, American Political Science
Association Annual Meeting, September 1, 2006, Philadelphia. I would like
to thank Paul Brace, George Krause, Alisa Hicklin, Larry O'Toole, Jim
Rogers, and Michael Thies for their assistance.