Public official associations and public administration: A shared history

This essay focuses on the development of public official associations—those organizations that represent the interests of incumbent public officials in public affairs and their sense of the public interest—as a way to illustrate major issues of professionalism and intergovernmental management. Associations are seen as vehicles for linking an otherwise fragmented federal system and profession. Concentrating on the groups representing general government officials, efforts to make public official associations financially secure, intellectually stimulating, and influential in policy formulation will be reviewed from 1891 to 1940. An understanding of the history of Public Administration is incomplete without recognizing that the early development of the field was based on the logic of reform, a central feature of which was an alliance of nongovernmental associations dedicated to the public good.