Public administration as a science of the articicial : a methodology for prescription
By: Meier, Kenneth J
.
Contributor(s): keiser, Lael R.
Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishers, sep./oct.1996Public administration review: PAR 56, 5, p. 459-466Abstract: How can academic research be made more relevant to practitioners? The authors argue that the dominant quantitative technique in public administration, regression, and recent improvements in that technique, focus on the average cases rather than the highperforming cases. This focus may serve academics well, but it serves practitioners poorly. They introduce a new quantitative technique that better fits public administration's need for prescription. Their approach, substantively weighted least squares, stresses how high-preformance agencies differ from the average agency. The technique in combination with more traditional methods can address both how things are as well as how they might be.
How can academic research be made more relevant to practitioners? The authors argue that the dominant quantitative technique in public administration, regression, and recent improvements in that technique, focus on the average cases rather than the highperforming cases. This focus may serve academics well, but it serves practitioners poorly. They introduce a new quantitative technique that better fits public administration's need for prescription. Their approach, substantively weighted least squares, stresses how high-preformance agencies differ from the average agency. The technique in combination with more traditional methods can address both how things are as well as how they might be.
Public administration review PAR
Sep./Oct. 1996 Volume 56 Number 5
Click on an image to view it in the image viewer
There are no comments for this item.