ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY IN THE 1980s: A VIEWPOINT

The last fifteen years or so saw a flourish and then the surprising collapse of implementation process theory and contingency theory. Despite the enormous popular (and international) impact of privatization in these years, there was oddly little British administrative research in that area, although other aspects of‘the Thatcherite Revolution’, especially‘the new public management’, cultural change, and the divestment of executive work by Whitehall departments, were well covered. Growth points were informational logic theory and institutional analysis, though British development of cultural theory was somewhat lacking. Emphasis which shifted from‘public administration’to‘public management’may shift again in the coming decade, to‘governance’.