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 involved with self-study by coining the term “baroquism”—a reexamination by public administrationist 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.