Abstract
Systems theory it seems has turned into something strange and exciting that can bring together mathematicians, physicists, meteorologists, computer scientists, and evolutionary biologists. It is natural to ask how public administration might benefit from the application of these new theoretical developments, called here complex systems theory, to the study of human institutions and human behavior. The task of this paper is to summarize in non-technical language the key insights of complex systems theory, evaluate the recent attempts to apply them to organizational management, and conclude with an overall appraisal of the usefulness and limitations of applying them to public administration. The paper identifies several applications of this theory from the public administration literature which can be seen as providing a foundation for building further the connection between complexity theory and public administration theory. It concludes by proposing that we adapt complex systems ideas for use in public administration instead of trying to translate them directly from physical to human systems.