Midnight in the Garden of PA

Distinctive from the arts and sciences from which it draws, public administration scholarship is inextricably defined by zeitgeist; for such scholarship must, one way or the other, come to terms with "what is to be done" in the face of any number of pressing, real-time dilemmas. In this respect, the Minnowbrook "tradition" derives in major part from soul-searching efforts among public administration scholars following the revelations of the Kerner Report of 1968 into "civil disorders" occurring over the previous few years in major metropolitan areas across the US. Those who wish to honor the Minnowbrook intentions, if not "tradition," now have their backs well against the chimerical wall of foreclosed, intellectual opportunities; the "road not taken," as it were. Before Minnowbrook IV rounds the corner, the authors suggest, for a start, weaning off the "peer-reviewed" model of scholarship that has so muzzled and emasculated intellectual daring and insight this last half-century.