The Public Administration Doctorate: A Degree in Search of a Purpose

Abstract

The purpose of doctoral education in public administration might seem almost self-evident. If public adminstration were regarded like most other academic fields and disciplines, the traditional purpose of the doctorate—the development and dissemination of knowledge relevant to the field and preparation of the professoriate—would hold for public administration as well. Most academicians in public administration probably continue to think of the doctorate in precisely that way. However, the evidence simply does not support this view. Indeed, the public administration doctorate appears to lack any clear, defined purpose.

Here we examine evidence from two research streams for what the data can tell us about doctoral education in public administration. First, we look at the literature on the quality of dissertation research in the field. Next, we review the literature which has examined the publication record of doctorate recipients in the field with a close look at the class of 1987. Evidence from these two sources renders the traditional view of doctoral education completely untenable for public administration and fails to support any other explicit purpose. We close with some tentative suggestions for ways to improve this unfortunate situation. We would be remiss, however, in painting an optimistic picture of what strikes us as almost a “Rubik's Cube” conundrum for public administration doctoral education.