"Refounding Public Administration redefines the legitimate role of the public administrator and creates a normative theory of the development of American public administration. The Carter and Reagan administrations initiated a policy of `bureaucrat bashing'. It was in response to this that Wamsley organized the Blacksburg Conference, an academic meeting with the sole purpose of analyzing the present and future development of public admin ..."
"The contributors to this volume contend that the North American political system is undergoing a serious governmental crisis - political leaders know only how to campaign, not how to gain consensus on goals or direct a course that is to the good of the nation. Public administration is therefore forced to compensate for the growing inadequacy of the `leaders', and with a normative-based body of theorizing, perform its key role of governa ..."