Analysis of Theoretical Models to the Study of Comparative Public Administration

The focus of this paper through theoretical framework is to analyse the major theoretical models and their application to study comparative public administration, which is cross-cultural comparison of administrative systems in both developed and developing societies of the world. While the cultural dimension undoubtedly is essential to our understanding of administration, the comparative study of administration cannot be limited to cultural comparison alone. However, comparative public administration is conceived as the studies of administrative system across national political system. The paper through critical analysis identified some major problems that affected the development of these models in this field of study. Some of these perplexing problems include Riggs difficulty to utilise the structural functionalism model to compare and explain administrative phenomena of the less developed countries. Riggs wholesale application of the prismatic model to all the developing countries as a homogeneous entity and the sharp contrast in the Agrarian and Industrial model, in which Sulton and Riggs fully positively characterised the industrial society and fully negatively characterised the Agrarian society. Administration in newly independent nation-states scattered around the globe must also be taken into account. The paper painstakingly appraises many of these models and concludes that all stakeholders in the Comparative Public Administration and the polity should thread softly, be objective, rational, altruistic and magnanimous in order not to make the existence of other nation-states (social, political and economic cohesive existence of the people, peace and tranquility), a fleeting illusion and a mirage. The paper further concludes that the theoretical models coined for comparative analysis in this field of study have not been very useful. The paper, however, proffer some remedies.