The Science of "Muddling Through"

Item

Title

The Science of "Muddling Through"

Abstract/Description

Short courses, books, and articles exhort administrators to make decisions more methodically, but there has been little analysis of the decision-making process now used by public administrators. The usual process is investigated here-and generally defended against proposals for more "scientific" methods. Decisions of individual administrators, of course, must be integrated with decisions of others to form the mosaic of public policy. This integration of individual decisions has become the major concern of organization theory, and the way individuals make decisions necessarily affects the way those decisions are best meshed with others'. In addition, decision-making method relates to allocation of decision-making responsibility-who should make what decision. More "scientific" decision-making also is discussed in this issue: "Tools for Decision-Making in Resources Planning."

Author/creator

Lindblom, Charles Edward

Date

1959

In publication

Public Administration Review

Volume

19

Issue

2

Pages

79-88

Resource type

en Background/Context

Medium

en Print

Background/context type

en Conceptual

Open access/free-text available

en No

Peer reviewed

en Yes

ISSN

0033-3352

DOI

10.2307/973677

URL

Official Publisher's Webpage (JSTOR)

Citation

Lindblom, C. E. (1959). The Science of “Muddling Through.” Public Administration Review, 19(2), 79–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/973677

Cited in

The Policy Context of United States Educational Innovation and Improvement

Resource status/form

en Published Text

Scholarship genre

en Theoretical

Item sets

Oxford Bibliography: The Policy Context of United States Educational Innovation and Improvement

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