Minnowbrook, Mount Grace and the State of the Discipline
Journal Article
2009-06
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Journal of Public Administration
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South African Association of Public Administration and Management
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University of Cape Town
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Faculty
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Abstract
There has been a lively debate in the last few editions of the Journal of Public Administration. This article focuses on one of the key issues raised in the debate namely the influence of the Minnowbrook and Mount Grace conferences on the discipline of Public Administration. Both of these conferences were held in times of turbulence, Minnowbrook in the United States and Mount Grace in South Africa.
This article examines the similarities and differences between Minnowbrook and Mount Grace. The final section of the paper tries to gauges the extent of influence of Mount Grace’s influence on contemporary South African Public Administration. The paper concludes that while Minnowbrook and Mount Grace have both been influential but there were crucial differences between them. Minnowbrook’s major contribution was to enrich Public Administration as an academic discipline and to improve scholarship. It also appears to have had some influence on practice. Mount Grace’s emphasis was on professional education and training. It has led to the enrichment of Public Administration as an academic discipline and also appears to have had some influence on practice. However Mount Grace appears to have had little impact on the development of academic scholarship in South Africa.
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Reference:
Cameron, R. & Milne, C. (2009). Minnowbrook, Mount Grace and the State of the Discipline. Journal of Public Administration, 44(2): 380-395.