The Waldo Simon debates instrumental at the time in the develop were ment of public administrative theory. to further questions about whether public administration did or did not have a paradigmatic base which is the subject of chapter 2. These dialectical exchanges helped to significantly push the field further in its evolution as one of scientific inquiry. Interestingly enough, however, the same old exchanges perdu today. A series of commentaries appearing in such journals as Administra. tion and Society, Public Administration Review, and Administration Theory and Praxis have been inflammatory, sometimes offensive, and, perhaps due to a smidgen of obstinate hubris intellectually futile. They are counter- productive, the add little to what Waldo and Simon set forth in the 1950s, and thus they have contributed only marginally to the evolution of knowledge and theory in the field. Indeed, the dogmatic persistence of particular research traditions has been detrimental to theory building in public administration. Bozeman(2007, 1-2) addresses this issue in the context of public interest theory: