Graduate Education in Political Science, in Traditional Public Administration and in the Emerging Public Management Approach: A Comparison of the Relevance of Each to Public Service Career Preparation.

Three approaches to public administration are analyzed in light of their contributions to preparation for careers in public service. The approaches are graduate education in political science, traditional public administration training, and public management. The three types of programs stress different subject matter and have different objectives. For example, political science offers general knowledge about the government process, policy making, and methodological training in statistics and probability. The end product of political science training is a teaching and research position in a university. The public administration approach trains students to work in a technical or management position in government. Students are taught to develop practical solutions to hypothetical problems within a short time. Students in public management programs, on the other hand, are involved in real work situations, generally as interns in governmental agencies or offices. They are directed to seek a desired outcome in a specific time period using limited resources. The perspective of educators responsible for developing public management programs changes constantly in response to the needs of public service. Trends indicate that public administration will increasingly liberate itself from political science departments; political science will continue to increase its involvement in policy studies; and public management will increasingly concentrate on program analysis and diminish its ties to political science departments. (DB)