Political Administration and Public Policies: building a new theoretical and methodological approach to understand social relations of production, circulation and distribution

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to discuss the epistemological field of the science of administration, using the contributions of the Political Administration, as a theoretical-epistemological and methodological basis to understand, in a critical and contextualized way, the abstract/conceptual (‘management’) and empirical (‘administration practices’) dimensions of public policies. In order to address the administration epistemologic problem, it is crucial to recognize that administration is a social ‘knowledge’ and ‘practice’ that is still not perceived as an autonomous field of knowledge. As for the methodological path, the study presents the conceptual issues supporting the epistemological and methodological basis of the Political Administration, which defends that the ‘management’ is its ‘scientific object’ and the ‘organization’ its privileged ‘object of study’. Subsequently, after broadening the understanding of the field of reflection and action of administration science, the authors establish a dialogue with other scientific fields, especially with Political Economy. Finally, the essay presents preliminary reflections on contributions that empirical studies in Political Administration can bring to understanding social relations of production, circulation and distribution in contemporary capitalism in terms of evaluation of public policies.

Keywords:
Political Administration; Epistemology of Administration; Evaluation of Public Policies