The Doctoral Graduate in Public Administration: Apprentice or Master?

Abstract

Doctoral programs in public administration have been criticized for failing to produce productive scholars who make substantial contributions to the field. The authors argue that critics have focused too narrowly on measures of short-term productivity while ignoring several important long-term goals of doctoral education, namely, training scholars to be intellectuals, training teachers, training practitioners, and educating citizens. The importance of these goals is discussed. An outside perspective is presented by comparing American doctoral programs with the program structures in four Western European countries. The article closes by providing suggestions for how American doctoral programs in public administration can better reach and assess their success in attaining the long-term goals put forward by the authors. A heavy emphasis is placed upon multi- and inter-disciplinary approaches to training students in a setting that allows students to focus their attention on the literatures and methodologies relevant to the field.