Public Administration in the Social Reform Movement

At the start of the 20th century, social reform competed with structural reform for the hearts and minds of urban reformers. Public administration scholarship has long recognized P A's roots in the structural reform tradition. In contrast, P A's rela­tionship to the social reform tradition has remained obscure. This exploration in the history of ideas shows that social reform rejected many principles upon which public adminis­tration now rests, and advanced many alternative concepts in their stead.