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The study of the bureaucratic function is an odyssey characterized by gaps between theory and method, on the one hand, descriptive case study and comparative generalization, on the other. Referring to the latter, Keith M. Henderson notes that public administration generally developed from idiographic case studies to analyses at a genuine nomothetic level, with comparison as the basis for generalization.l Theories which explain are built from such generalization. But this movement in the discipline has yet to be accompanied by a shift from gesture to major effort in the study of bureaucracy, especially in Latin America. In part, this hesitance reflects a vigilance against overreaction to the impact of empirical methodology on the study of administration and bureaucracy. The case study has made an important contribution to our knowledge of bureaucracy in Latin America. To undervalue it might create a situation where, as Frank Moreno states, "A dogmatism of method could develop which would preclude the proper appreciation and use of all the knowledge gathered by traditionalist students of Latin politics."2 Regardless of where we stand on the larger controversy between the "ttraditional' and the "behavioral," the intellectual contribution of empirical research is important. It exists in the form of an operational research perspective which says that analysis requires a clear |
