Abstract
"A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation". This quote from Edmond Burke can be applied not only to the state but also, to some extent, to the field of public administration. Indeed, a book such as The Public Administration Theory Primer (2003), intending to gather main theories of public administration, shows how modern theories or concepts prevent the discipline from becoming irrelevant. For instance, the so-called New Public Management or the concept of governance is first of all based on case-studies, they sometimes borrow theoretical developments from other fields and they even can be based on rhetoric. This change in methodology is blatant in H. George Frederickson's article on public administrative conjunction. The latter will be analyzing in this paper, but instead of asking if this theory is accurate or useful, we will see how it is based on empirical facts, making it a "modern" theory (I).
