Book Reviews
Abstract
Stephen L. Percy 77 tool for the student and the practitioner seeking knowledge of how "to run a constitution" in contemporary American society? As with most such "politically inspired" scholarly endeavers, the high goals set out for the work are only partially met. The stock taking of the intellectual development of the discipline-and its several major subfields (e.g., personnel/public management, administrative law, public budgeting, comparative administration)-is the most nearly accomplished of the goals set out for the volume. The reader is treated to excellent overviews of scholarship done in those subfields, and for these contributions alone the book is worth its price to the serious student of public administration. The third goal, providing a useful resource for the student or practitioner seeking a better understanding of the administrative process, is much better accomplished for the academic researcher and the serious student than for the inquititive practitioner; a heavy emphasis upon academic issues and university concerns pervades the book in a way most practitioners likely would find rather uninteresting. The least well-accomplished goal is that of identifying those major areas of mutual interest that could serve to bring together in a useful and productive way the scholars of public