Americans take pride in their dynamic culture. However, the reality is that Americans have become content to live in the past and have become ideologically locked into periods of the past. Having committed to specific beliefs, they refuse to let go. The disciplines of American public administration and economics are no exception. They have been locked into their foundational principles and practices for over 100 years. Both fields are path-dependent which has made them change-resistant. This paper will examine the nature of change in American culture and the influence of path-dependency on public administration and economics. In the field of public administration, path-dependency will be used as the framework for analyzing recent public administration reform movements (the New Public Management, the governance movement, and “joined up” government) and it will explain how these movements have been bound by the traditional public administration doctrine crafted in 1887. This paper will demonstrate that significant change has not taken place in public administration theory and practice since the late 19th century. In the field of economics, the limitations of both orthodox and heterodox economics will be analyzed. This paper will argue that orthodox economics, grounded in the ideas of the past--The Enlightenment, natural law, and Newtonian mechanics--is insufficient for dealing with the current political, social and economic realities. Furthermore, the case will be made that heterodox economics, although in opposition to mainstream theory, only challenges the neoclassical model at the edges. Because of the constrained path of American public administration and the continued adherence to the neoclassical model of economics, public administration and economics are not prepared to respond to the complexities of the 21st century. A new framework is needed in both disciplines that can accommodate the complexities, uncertainty, and nonlinearity of the future. (Note:This paper was previously prepared for presentation at the Annual Conference of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, Las Vegas, Nevada, September 30-October 10, 2010. It has been revised, re-titled, and expanded.)
