East or west, home is best: will public administration return to its roots after drifting too far away?

Throughout its development, Public Administration has experienced multiple major shifts in its focus and purpose, in both theory and practice. An over-reliance on privatisation schemes and an increasing emphasis on the political rather than the administrative aspects have brought significant challenges to the field, including a prolonged identity crisis and fragmentation. This article calls for the discipline to revert to its original principles away from politicisation and from encroachment of business-like practices. This article synthesises a range of scholarly debates and historical and contemporary international experiences to draw its conclusions. I suggest that it is both possible and sensible for Public Administration to return to its core disciplinary mission, while benefiting from advancements in technology and society. Furthermore, I argue that governments must face emerging challenges relating to the “shadow state” elite of private investors. In addition, the study proposes a set of research directions to restore purpose in Public Administration.