The Great Masters of Public Administration: Von Justi, Von Stein, Bonnin and GonzáLez

Abstract

Pubic administration, like other disciplines, has great thinkers whose contributions are the foundation of scientific development. They are the leaders and masters of the field. During the 18th century, Johann Heinrich von Justi studied the “police”, preceding the first studies in public administration that would be pioneered by by Lorenz von Stein (Germany) and Charles-Jean Bonnin (France) one century later. Stein developed an administrative version of the rule of law in the 19th century. On the other hand, inspired by the French Revolution and Napoleon’s Empire, Bonnin created the modern concept of public administration. During the same period, Florentino González, a notable Colombian intellectual, wrote the first book on public administration in a Republican. In this paper I study the contributions of these great masters of public administration.

Keywords: Public administration, police, science of public administration, science of police, cameralism, cameralistic.