In contrast to these mainstream models of public administration or public management that are rooted in the idea of rational choice, we suggest an al- ternative, the New Public Service (see Table 1 on pages 28–29). Like the New Public Management and the Old Public Administration, the New Public Service consists of many diverse elements, and many different scholars and practitioners have contributed, often in disagreement with one another. Yet there are certain general ideas that seem to characterize this approach as a normative model and to distinguish it from others. Certainly the New Public Service can lay claim to an impressive intellectual heritage, including the work of those we mentioned earlier who provided constructive dissent to the rationalist prescriptions of the mainstream model (e.g., Dimock, Dahl, and Waldo). However, here we will focus on more contemporary precursors of the New Public Service, includ- ing (1) theories of democratic citizenship, (2) models of community and civil society, (3) organizational humanism and the new public administration, and (4) postmodern public administration. We will then outline what we see as the main tenets of the New Public Service.