Public administration is examining it-self. Given the history of the field this exercise probably is a sign of health. While self-scrutiny can be overdone-the late mathematician John von Neumann once described the state of a discipline that had become far too involved with self-study by coining term "baroquism"-a reexamination by Public administrationists of where the field has been and where it is going appears worthwhile. As an intellectual enterprise public administration has reached a point of radical departure from its own past.