水門事件之前美國公共行政領域對於價值觀之探討相當有限，這乃是因為受到「行政工具理性」觀點之影響，因而較少對目標或價值觀加以關注。然而水門事件，促使美國公共行政領域對行政價值觀以及行政倫理等議題重新認真思考。許多學者與實務人員均開始關心「何謂公共利益」以及「如何方能確保行政人員之行動確能符合公共利益」等問題。對於這些問題，雖然已有學者嘗試提出其主張，但迄今仍未有具體可應用的成果，並且各種主張之間尚且互有衝突。這可能是各個主張背後的指導價值觀互有不同所致。因此，如欲對上述問題有一妥適的探討，首先應對現今公共行政之基礎價值觀詳細加以檢視。本文即嘗試進 行此一工作。文中共對六組公共行政之重要價值觀加以探討，並對其彼此之間的關係進行檢視。本文之分析顯示美國公共行政各組重要價值觀之間存有相互競爭甚至是相互衝突之關係。本文因而建議行政人員在面對價值抉擇時應試圖尋求各價值觀之間的平衡而不應過度執著於某一價值觀而忽略了其它價值觀。此外，根據上述對於美國公共行政重要價值觀之討論，本文亦對我國公共行政領域提出若干初步之建議，以供參考。

　　　　　The notion that values are central to the study and practice of public administration has gained a wide popularity in the aftermath of Watergate. This renewed emphasis on values is in sharp contrast to the view of administrative instrumentality which sees public administration as mainly concerned with rational function(that is, achieving the tasks efficiently and economically), instead of the ends or values of public politics. Although this policy-administration dichotomy has long been riticized by the academicians for its ethical undesirability and empirical invalidity, it remains as the dominant aradigm for public administration practitioners almost everywhere. Thus, before atergate, the study of values received only scattered interest among the students of public administration. However, the Watergate scandal forcefully edirected the field to ponder on the important issues of values, ethics, and orality. People began to ask: What is public interest? and how can we ensure that the public administrator's decisions are int he public interest? Profound fforts have been made to answer these questions; however, the resulted answers are so far not readily applicable in the real world situation and sometimes they are in conflict with each other. Part of the reason of these conflicting views might be resulted from the theorists' different value references. Thus, a self-conscious examination of the underlying values of the current theory and practice in public administration is a necessary preliminary step for any attempt to answer the above mentioned questions. The purpose of this paper is to address the question: what are the important values in contemporary American public administration? and what are the relationships among these values? Six sets of values are identified for discussion; the relationships among these sets of values are explored; and some practical suggestions for balancing these competing or conflicting values are made. The author proposes that public administrators should always try to find creative ways to balance these values instead of eagerly pursuing one at the expense of another.