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This symposium showcases diverse contributions that a particular institutional theory of cultural biases makes to public administration and policy research. Bridging and integrating these subfields, the theory offers powerful explanations for the ways in which institutional processes drive policy‐making. Developed initially by Douglas using Durkheimian theory, Hood and Wildavsky made the theory increasingly influential in public administration and policy. Today, the theory has several variants which nevertheless share common core elements. We briefly survey this institutional theory's contributions to the study of public administration and policy before describing its central claims, analysing the uses of its variants in the symposium articles, and identifying their key advances. We conclude with challenges and promising developments in efforts to conceptualize, operationalize, and test the theory in public administration and policy research.

pt. 1. The development of U.S. public administration -- pt. 2. Public policy making -- pt. 3. The machinery of government -- pt. 4. Intergovernmental relations -- pt. 5. Ethics -- pt. 6. Organization theory -- pt. 7. Organization behavior -- pt. 8. Managerialism and information technology -- pt. 9. Strategic management -- pt. 10. Leadership -- pt. 11. Personnel management -- pt. 12. Social equity -- pt. 13. Public finance -- pt. 14. Program analysis and evaluation.

This is the fourth volume of a four-volume encyclopaedia which combines public administration and policy and contains approximately 900 articles by over 300 specialists. This Volume covers entries from R to Z.

The teaching of an introductory course in American Government can be a difficult and frustrating endeavor under even the best of circumstances. Given the general level of cynicism and/or lack of interest by large numbers of Americans regarding politics and politicians, the task of generating student enthusiasm, or even mild interest, toward the subject matter can indeed be an arduous one. When the teaching of such a course takes place in a business college, and when the student audience is "captive" to a college requirement that all students must take the course, the task can be rendered considerably more formidable.For the past six years I have been teaching such courses at business colleges — one year at Bryant College in Rhode Island, and the following five years at Bentley College in Massachusetts.