Constitutionalist Public Administration Paradigm: The Predominant Paradigm in OMB-A-76

A Big Question for public administration scholarship is to what degree does (and should) our constitutional heritage influence our approach to administering the public sphere, and has this changed over time. Most scholarship addresses this from a normative theoretical perspective, with little empirical research to support its claims. I conduct a longitudinal content analysis of the regulatory devise, OMB Circular A-76, from 1966 to 2003, looking for evidence of a change in public administration paradigms from a Constitutionalist Public Administration Paradigm to an Entrepreneurial Public Administration Paradigm. I find that the Constitutionalist Public Administration Paradigm is the predominant public administration paradigm in all the Circulars.