Summary: Past attempts to define what education in the public administration field is and should be have been extremely unsuccessful or extremely lethargic. The Mellon Project is an ambitious attempt under the auspices of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) to construct a morphology of the field of public administration by gathering data on educational programs. Even in the Mellon Project, however, there has not been a comprehensive examination of the role of doctoral programs in the field of public administration. According to data obtained from NASPAA, there has been an almost imperceptible growth in the number of doctoral degrees awarded in the field of public administration, in contrast with the steady growth on the master's level. The lack of attention devoted to doctoral programs portends a future of continued intellectual second-class citizenship; a situation where faculty members in public administration programs are socialized into other disciplines and come to public administration for reasons other than scholarly interest. If the development of the public administration profession and professional is to continue, a long-term commitment to the development of doctoral programs is needed.
