Genesis of comparative public administration | History | Origin

The origin of comparative studies in Administration date back to Aristotle times where he sent different scholar to different part of the world to study their political system. CPA started off as a topic of interest in 1884 when Wilson published essay stating in order to study our country Administrative weakness we need to compare it with others. The essay was not taken seriously as the government, theorist were busy understanding their own Administrative set up before they could compare it with other. 

CPA emerged after world war two . It attempt to help developing Administrative practice. After world war two international development strategies were objective of CPA. In 1962, Fred Riggs in his articles emphasized need to study political Administrative institution pointed out three trends

1. From normative to experimental orientation.

2. From  ideographic to nomothetic orientation.

3. From non ecological to ecological orientation.

Normative to experimental orientation means study on scientific method with view to evolve science of public administration avoiding rule of thumbs and assumptions made 

Ideographic orientation meant study of one nation only where as nomothetic orientation meant universal studies. In comparative public administration we go from individual to universal study

Ecology orientation meant study of environment of Administrative system and interaction between environment and Administrative system.  Administration system operates in external environment and is affected by political system and various social and economumic forces .