在一个多世纪的历史变迁中，美国公共行政理论形成了复杂多样的思想流派和分析模式。早期公共行政理论研究，从政治与行政的关系入手，着重探讨了公共行政的本质内涵和特殊地位、行政管理的效率追求和技术因素，并触及了公共行政中的民主原则等问题。对这些问题的讨论和解答构成了公共行政的古典传统。该传统虽在理论存在上有不完备之处，但它为以后行政理论的发展奠定了重要基础 In more than a century of historical changes, the American public administration theory has formed a complex and diverse school of thought and analysis mode. The study of the early public administration theory, starting from the relationship between politics and administration, focused on the essential connotation and special status of public administration, the efficiency pursuit and technical factor of administration, and touched on the democratic principles of public administration. Discussions and answers to these questions form the classical tradition of public administration. Although there is an incompleteness in the existence of the theory, this tradition has laid an important foundation for the development of administrative theory in the future