Bureaucratitis, Bureaucratiasis and Bureaucratosis: Prescribing Interdisciplinary Knowledge

This paper explores the epistemological challenge for public administration. The central argument is that the field is an interdisciplinary domain par excellence, it must be able to articulate distinct types of knowledge. Overcoming excesses, isolationism and mental barriers that distort bureaucracy are characterized as pathologies identified as bureaucratitis, bureaucratiasis and bureaucratosis. The manuscript highlights seven themes—political science, international relations, administrative traditions, culture, welfare state, paradigms and models of organization of public administration and comparative studies. These themes counter isolationist, self-referenced thought structures within Cartesian instrumentalism, which end up molding insulated, unfocused, limited and disconnected public policies from reality.