# David H. Rosenbloom

David H. Rosenbloom (born 1943) is a scholar in the field of public administration. He is the Distinguished Professor of Public Administration at the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C. An authority on issues related to administrative law and constitutional aspects of public sector personnel policies, Rosenbloom is known for his approach emphasizing understanding American public administration from the three perspectives associated with the constitutional separation of powers: law, politics and management. He advocates establishing "constitutional competence" as a basic standard for public service professionals.

## Education

Rosenbloom earned a BA in political science at Marietta College in 1964. He holds a Master of Arts (1966) and in PhD (1969) in political science, both at the University of Chicago. His PhD dissertation, "The Relationship Between the Citizen and the State In Public Employment in America," was the basis for his first book, Federal Service and the Constitution: The Development of the Public Employment Relationship (1971). He received an honorary doctorate of law in 1994 from Marietta College.

## Career

Rosenbloom was an assistant professor in political science at the University of Kansas from 1969 to 1971. From 1971 to 1973, he visited Tel Aviv University, where he was a senior lecturer in political science. From 1973 to 1978, he was an assistant and associate professor of political science at the University of Vermont. From 1978 to 1990, he was a faculty member at The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He was professor of public administration from 1979 to 1988, and professor of political science from 1987 to 1990. He was also an adjunct professor of law from 1985 to 1989. At the Maxwell School he was distinguished professor of public administration from 1988 to 1990. Presently, in addition to being a distinguished professor at American University, he is the chair professor of public management in the Department of Public and Social Administration, at the City University of Hong Kong (visiting). In 2014, he served as book series editor for the American Society for Public Administration indicating that the disability fields do not constitute a categorical system of state agencies and services in the US.

### Research

Rosenbloom contends that contemporary public administration is based primarily on three approaches: management, politics/policy, and law.
* Managerial- The Managerial foundation is used to manage the performance of organizations. Key areas include administrative decision-making, managerial techniques, leaders, and employee contributions. By these elements working together, organizations can operate successfully.
* Political/Policy- The Political approach discusses how political officials oversee the different administrative decisions. Politicians have the final say on the laws that public administrators are tasked with executing. Within Rosenbloom's editorial "Have an Administrative Rx? Don't Forget the Politics!" he writes about the Politics/Administration Dichotomy – a principle developed by the Civil Service Reforms of the 1870s and the 1880s stating that politics and administration should remain separate in the public sector. That is a strange idea according to this article, in which he argues that if politics and public administration were separate, this approach would not work, emphasizing their inevitable interconnection.
* Legal- The most crucial, according to Rosenbloom. The rule of law involves orderliness and comprehension, and spells out when and how tasks will be completed. Rosenbloom argues that to carry out their tasks, public administrators must be competent in their legal and constitutional obligations and restrictions.
Rosenbloom's argument is that to understand public administration, it is not sufficient to use just one approach, but to think of all three at the same time. Rosenbloom documents that in 1946, by making major reforms, Congress became the central authority in how public administration operated in the federal government, incorporating all three approaches. Rosenbloom argues that public administration at other levels should operate in the same way.

### Organizations

* Stream Leader, Public Policy and Management, Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong, 2009–2010.
* Acting chair of the Department of Public Administration and Policy at American University from 2005 to 2006.
* Chair of the American University Faculty Senate from 2004 to 2005.
* Member of the board of trustees at Marietta College from 2003 to 2009, life associate trustee in 2009.
* Member of the academic advisory board of Partnership for Public Service since 2003.
* Member of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship Program Review Panel from 2003 to 2008.
* Appointed member of the Clinton-Gore Transition U.S. Presidential Transition, from 1992 to 1993.
* Received a fellowship from the Government Operations Cluster for U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
* Elected to the National Academy of Public Administration in 1986.

### Awards and honors

In 2009 Rosenbloom earned the Scholarship in Public Sector Human Resources, Section on Personnel Administration and Labor Relations, from the American Society for Public Administration.
In 2008 he received the Mosher Award for Best Article by an Academician, which is in the Public Administration Review for "Reinventing Administrative Prescriptions: The Case for Democratic-Constitutional Impact Statements and Scorecards.”
In 2006 he received the Best Article Award, American Review of Public Administration for the journal "Outsourcing the Constitution and Administrative Law Norms, co-authored with Suzanne Piotrowski.
In 2005 he received a guest professorship at Northwest University in Xi'an, PRC.
In 2004 he received the Excellence in Teaching Award at the First Annual American University School of Public Affairs PhD Students' for Outstanding Contributions to PhD Students.
In 2003 he received a guest professorship at People's University of China, in Beijing, PRC.
In 2001 he received the National Academy of Public Administration Louis Brownlow Award. He received the John Gaus Award for Exemplary Scholarship in the Joint Tradition of Political Science and Public Administration, from the American Political Science Association. He was named Scholar/Teacher of the Year at the School of Public Affairs.
In 2000 he received an outstanding scholarship in research and other professional contributions from the School of Public Affairs.
In 1999 he received the Dwight Waldo Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Literature and Leadership of Public Administration Through an Extended Career. He received the Outstanding Service Award from the School of Public Affairs.
In 1996 he was the recipient of the Thomas Dye Award for Outstanding Service from the Policy Studies Organization.
In 1994 he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws at Marietta College.
In 1993 he received the Charles H. Levine Award for Excellence in Public Administration from the American Society for Public Administration/National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.
In 1992 he received the Distinguished Research Award from the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration/American Society for Public Administration.
In 1988 he was appointed first distinguished professor in the history of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.
In 1986 he received the Syracuse University Chancellor's Citation for Exceptional Academic Achievement.

## Publications

Rosenbloom has written extensively on the role of management practices, politics and political oversight, and administrative and constitutional law in public administration.

### Sole-authored and coauthored books

* Public Administration: Understanding Management, Politics, and Law in the Public Sector, Seventh Edition (NY: McGraw Hill, 2009 [published in April 2008]), 580 pp. Coauthors: Robert Kravchuk and Richard Clerkin.
Sixth Edition, 2005, 590 pp. Coauthor: Robert S. Kravchuk Also published by Peking University Press, PRC, with Chinese annotation.
Fifth Edition, 2002. 622 pp. Coauthor: Robert S. Kravchuk; this and all previous editions with the assistance of Deborah Goldman (Rosenbloom). Translated into Chinese, Taiwan: Pro-Ed Publishing/McGraw Hill, 2002 Translated into Chinese, Beijing: Renmin University, 2003.
Fourth Edition, 1998, 596 pp. Translated into Chinese, Taiwan: Pro-Ed Publishing/McGraw Hill, 2000.
Third Edition, 1993, 573 pp.
Second Edition, 1989, 517 pp.
First Edition, 1986, 511 pp.
* Personnel Management in Government, Sixth Edition. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis, 2007. 600 pp. Contributing coauthor, with Jay Shafritz; Katherine Naff and Norma Riccucci Norma M. Riccucci, principal authors.
Fifth Edition. NY: Marcel Dekker, 2001. 587 pp. Coauthors: Jay Shafritz, Katherine Naff, Norma M. Riccucci, Albert Hyde. Fourth Edition, 1992, 553 pp. Coauthors, Shafritz, Hyde, and Norma M. Riccucci.
Translated into Chinese as Guo Wai Xing Zheng Xue Jing Dian Yi Cong. Beijing,: J.D. Publishers, 1997.
Third Edition, 1986, 476 pp. Coauthors on this and earlier editions, Shafritz and Hyde.
Second Edition, 1981, 436 pp.
First Edition, 1978, 307 pp.
* A Reasonable Public Servant: Legal Challenges of American Public Service Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe 2005. 299 pp. Authorship: Yong S. Lee, senior author, in collaboration with David H. Rosenbloom
* Administrative Law for Public Managers. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2003. 201 pp.
* Building a Legislative-Centered Public Administration: Congress and the Administrative State, 1946–1999. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2000. 199 pp.
* Constitutional Competence for Public Managers: Cases and Commentary. Itasca, Illinois: F.E. Peacock, 2000. 221 pp. Coauthors: James Carroll, Jonathan Carroll. (This is a thorough revision, major expansion, and updating of Toward Constitutional Competence, 1990, listed below.)
Translated into Chinese, Beijing: Renmin University Press, 2006.
* Public Administration and Law: Bench and Bureau in the American Administrative State, Second Edition, NY: Marcel Dekker, 1997, 344 pp. Coauthor: Rosemary O'Leary.
Translated into Chinese: Zhogshan University Press, Guangzhou, PRC (2007).
First Edition, 1983. 236 pp. (Sole author.)
* Toward Constitutional Competence: A Casebook for Public Administrators. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1990. 174 pp. Coauthor: James D. Carroll.
* Essentials of Labor Relations. Reston, VA: Reston/Prentice Hall, 1985. Coauthor: Jay Shafritz. 264 pp.
* Representative Bureaucracy and the American Political System NY: Praeger Special Studies, 1981. Coauthor: Samuel Krislov. 208 pp. https://www.amazon.com/Representative-Bureaucracy-American-Political-System/dp/0030594472/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259783848&sr=1-1
* Bureaucratic Government, USA. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980. Coauthor: David Nachmias. 269 pp.
* Bureaucratic Culture: Citizens and Administrators in Israel London and New York: Croom Helm and St. Martin's Press, 1978. Coauthor: David Nachmias. 212 pp.
* Federal Equal Employment Opportunity: Politics and Public Personnel Administration. NY: Praeger, 1977. 184 pp.
* Federal Service and the Constitution: The Development of the Public Employment Relationship. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1971. Cornell Studies in Civil Liberties. 267 pp.

### Reports

* The United States Civil Service Commission's Role in the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Program, 1965–1970. Washington: U.S. Civil Service Commission, 1970. Principal Author. 69 pp.
* Core Competencies for Federal Facilities Asset Management Through 2020: Transformational Strategies. Committee on Core Competencies for Federal Facilities Asset Management, 2005–2020, National Research Council of the National Academies. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2008. Committee member. 121 pp.