The Postcard Project:

Future Directions in International and Comparative Administration

The Original Six Postcards

Introduction
Postcards from
... Paris
... Seoul
... Bamako
... New York City
... Rio de Janeiro
... Washington, DC
References

Further Contributions

... Derick Brinkerhoff
... Marc Lindenberg
... Fred Riggs
... Ted Thomas
... Tjip Walker

Links

Contribute a Postcard

All material on this web site is copyright by Tjip Walker and
Derick Brinkerhoff.

Introduction

The sub-field of international and comparative administration stands on the edge between yesterday and tomorrow. Behind are the youthful years that saw its birth in the 1950s and its recognition as a sub-discipline with the creation of the Section on International and Comparative Administration in 1971. In these early years the emphasis was initially on the transfer of American public administration based on assumptions of universal applicability. Later the focus shifted toward exploring the distinctiveness of the sub-field. Those involved with international and comparative administration, practitioners and academics alike, argued that their concerns with managing international organizations, delivering foreign aid, or building the capacity of developing-country bureaucracies are a world apart from the preoccupations of mainstream American public administration. Operating within this world-view, the dominant strands of the sub-field---international administration, comparative administration, and development management---have matured, largely apart from developments in the broader discipline.

A number of recent events, both inside and outside the discipline, have raised questions about whether this posture within the sub-field remains appropriate. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the continued rapid growth in East Asia have brought forth countries and posed problems not well-suited to international administration's traditional focus on bureaucracies in poor, authoritarian, non-Western states. Similarly, new approaches to development assistance that include policy reform, governmental down-sizing, privatization, partnerships, decentralization, and increased bureaucratic accountability through increased democratization extend far beyond development management's core emphasis on projects, training, and organizational capacity building. And then there is globalization. Sweeping global trends are forcing public administrators here in the US to confront such new issues as transnational organizations and cultural differences. Yet these are matters that have long been of concern to administrators in other parts of the world.

Thus international and comparative administration stands on the edge of a new millennium facing something of a mid-life crisis. Can the sub-field confront the challenges of tomorrow using the methods, models, and mindsets of the past? If not, how should it adapt? What should be its motivating questions? And how, with the growing convergence of administrative concerns across national borders, should it relate to the broader discipline of public administration? These are the questions we wish to explore.

To stimulate this conversation, we present an initial set of brief musings that originate from various places around the globe.⁽¹⁾ We selected these "postcards" because each of them presents a different perspective about the current questions and future directions for the sub-field. We hope you will find one or more of them sufficiently provocative to prompt your own postcard. Through this exchange of postcards we hope to stimulate a lively, yet thoughtful, discussion---both during the symposium and beyond---of how the sub-field would best respond to the challenges of the new millennium.

1. In the process of developing these viewpoints, we drew on the work of others. These references are listed on a separate page.

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