In his article “The Science of Public Administration: Three Problems,” Robert A. Dahl identified three fundamental challenges in treating public administration as a science:
- Values: Public administration involves decisions based on values, ethics, and politics, making it difficult to be fully objective or scientific.
- Human Behavior: Human actions in administration are unpredictable and complex, making it difficult to apply scientific rules consistently.
- Cultural Relativism: Administrative practices differ across countries and cultures, so creating universal principles is challenging unless studied on a comparative basis.
