Since the publication of Woodrow Wilson’s “The study of Administration” in
1887, and public administration became from that time, at least symbolically,
self-conscious discipline in America, there have existed a lot of debates on what
standards or criteria to which the activities of the public affairs should obey. The
evolution of contents of the public affairs, changes in politics, economics, and
society; and transformation of the viewpoints of methodology of social science, etc.,
always influence the choice of the ethical standards of the public affairs.
Values of efficiency, effectiveness, and economy were sought by
“objectivism” in epistemology which emphasize “politics / administration
dichotomy” basing on the capacity of human being’s “instrumental rationality”;
“subjectivism” influenced by phenomenology emphasize that “social reality” had
derived from interaction of man’s subjective meanings, so the values of equality,
freedom, and democracy should be sought.