Fred W. Riggs (July 3, 1917 in China – February 9, 2008 in USA)[1] was an American political scientist and pioneer of
comparative public administration. He has been described as "a towering figure in the field",[2] one of the "founders of the field",[3] and as an "energetic pioneer" in comparative research.[4] One commentator observed in 2012 that Riggs' work "is so extensive and creative that it has become an area of study by itself."[5]
Riggs was the founder and first chairperson of the Comparative Administration Group, which was later reorganized as the Section on International and Comparative Administration of the
American Society for Public Administration.[6] Riggs "managed the group . . . [and] provided intellectual leadership."[7] The Comparative Administration Group undertook a large number of studies around the world in the 1960s and early 1970s that were funded by the Ford Foundation.[8] One assessment says that the Group did "monumental work" under Riggs leadership, although not without attracting criticism.[8][9]
As a theorist, Riggs was most famous for his "prismatic theory of public administration."[10] His most influential book on this topic was Administration in Developing Countries: The Theory of Prismatic Society (1964).[11]
A 2019 study found that Riggs was the most frequently mentioned scholar in examination questions relating to public administration posed by India's Union Public Service Commission over the preceding twenty years.[12]
^Tummala, K. K. (1995). Fred W. Riggs and Comparative Administration [Review of Politics and Administration in Changing Societies: Essays in Honour of Professor Fred W. Riggs, by R. K. Arora]. Public Administration Review, 55(6), 581–582.
https://doi.org/10.2307/3110350.
^Heady, Ferrel. Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective, 6th ed. (New York: Marcel Dekker, 2001), 51.
^PENG, W.-S. (2008). A CRITIQUE OF FRED W. RIGGS' ECOLOGY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. Public Administration Quarterly, 32(4), 528–548.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41288330
^Jreisat, Jamil E., Globalism and Comparative Public Administration (Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2012), 155.
^Heady, F. (1998). Comparative and International Public Administration: Building Intellectual Bridges. Public Administration Review, 58(1), 32–39.
https://doi.org/10.2307/976887
^Jreisat, Jamil E., Globalism and Comparative Public Administration (Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2012), 44.
^
abFARAZMAND, A. (1996). DEVELOPMENT AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. Public Administration Quarterly, 20(3), 343–364.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40861684
^Sapru, R. (1979). COMPARATIVE ADMINISTRATION : RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. The Indian Journal of Political Science, 40(3), 466–477.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41854974