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Institute for Development Policy and Management
Part of the School of Environment and Development (SED)

IDPM Working papers

This Working Paper is part of the IDPM General Discussion Papers series

What has happened to Development Administration? Some Critical Reflections

Farhad Hossein

Abstract

This article provides a critical analysis of the evolving role of the concept of development administration in the discipline of public administration. Since its inception in the 1950s, development administration has helped scholars in public administration to advance theoretical and empirical understanding of their discipline in industrialized, transitional and developing countries. Research on development administration weakened during the 1980s in many OECD countries, consequently causing it to lose its momentum in the field but since the turn of the century it has shown signs of revival in the administrative science discourse largely in response to emerging challenges and opportunities created by globalization. The concept is gaining increasing utility in emerging research areas such as social capital, economic globalization, governance and administrative decentralization, development NGOs, ICT and e-governance.

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