Expanding the Toolbox: Why the Citizen-State Encounter Demands It

Abstract

This paper argues for the importance of the citizen–state encounter as the focal point for public administration research. It urges theory development and testing that humanizes practice, provides meaning, and builds healthy communities. The citizen–state encounter is the crux of public administration, but the tools investigators reach for in their research toolboxes are designed for other uses: to treat events and attitudes as if they are linear, to analyze big datasets, to compare taxing and spending, to map incidents of crime, to compare inputs to outputs. While necessary for categorizing people and tracking management, these tools stop short of supplying answers to the central question for government: How good is the quality of the encounter between citizen and state? How do residents feel about their government? These questions are fundamental and researchers should have a selection of tools broad enough to answer them.