Your responses should be 3 pages for each question. Fully answer the questions.
- One of the central goals of CPA research is to compare differing administrative structures in order to determine which system is superior. This central goal relies on defining what characteristics superior systems of administration will have. Discuss how the field of CPA measures the superiority of certain systems or practices over less superior alternatives. Simply put, what does it mean for one system of public administration to be better than another and how do you measure that?
- Comparative research has to deal with the tradeoff between specific studies and generalizable findings. On one hand, it is valuable to conduct detailed studies of administrative systems or practices in a specific country to fully understand how the administration system of a foreign country operates. On the other hand, it is also valuable to be able to simplify findings so that they can be generalized across countries. Discuss the debate between specificity and generalizability in the CPA literature. What are the benefits and drawbacks of in-depth studies compared with broad cross-country analyses? Is there always a tradeoff between specificity and generalizability, or is it possible to achieve both while conducting research in CPA?