A Braibant Lecture Prepared for the Congress of

The International Institute of Administrative Sciences

in Bali, Indonesia on July 15, 2010

One major impetus for this paper developed out of the writer’s personal observation and involvement as a student of political science and a teacher of public administration in Japan.  The primary intent of the paper is to compare and contrast public administration as studied and practiced in the United States and East Asian countries from three different perspectives. 
This writer first describes characteristics of the study of public administration in the United States, as the discipline originated in the U.S. and its influence continues in the rest of the world even to this date. 

The American study of public administration has three distinctive characteristics.  First, debate on the separation of administration from politics: at one point, separating the administration from politics was considered necessary for efficient and clean government.  At other times, this division was considered impractical, and that administrators could become good politicians.