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Fred W. Riggs (July 3, 1917 in China – February 9, 2008 in USA) was an American political scientist and pioneer of comparative public administration. He has been described as "a towering figure in the field", one of the "founders of the field", and as an "energetic pioneer" in comparative research. One commentator observed in 2012 that Riggs' work "is so extensive and creative that it has become an area of study by itself."

Riggs was the founder and first chairperson of the Comparative Administration Group, which was later reorganized as the Section on International and Comparative Administration of the American Society for Public Administration. Riggs "managed the group . . . provided intellectual leadership." The Comparative Administration Group undertook a large number of studies around the world in the 1960s and early 1970s that were funded by the Ford Foundation. One assessment says that the Group did "monumental work" under Riggs leadership, although not without attracting criticism.

As a theorist, Riggs was most famous for his "prismatic theory of public administration." His most influential book on this topic was Administration in Developing Countries: The Theory of Prismatic Society (1964).

A 2019 study found that Riggs was the most frequently mentioned scholar in examination questions relating to public administration posed by India's Union Public Service Commission over the preceding twenty years.

The Riggs Award for Lifetime Achievement in International and Comparative Public Administration is named in his honor. A one-day Riggs Symposium is also held as part of the annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration.

Riggs ended his career as professor emeritus at Political Science Department of University of Hawaii.

Awards

Awards:

• Dwight Waldo award for lifetime achievements in Public Administration, American Society for Public Administration, April 1991.
• Order of White Elephant, conferred by King of Thailand, in Bangkok, 1986.
• First non-Asian to be honored by Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration, EROPA Conference, Seoul, Korea, 1983.
• Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, 1966–67.
• Senior Specialist, East-West Center, University of Hawaii, 1962–1963.
• Fellow, Committee on Comparative Politics of the Social Science Research Institute, for field research in Thailand, 1957–58.

References

1. "Obituary: Prof. Fred W. Riggs - *ISA Blog". Isanet.org. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
2. Tummala, K. K. (1995). Fred W. Riggs and Comparative Administration . Public Administration Review, 55(6), 581–582. https://doi.org/10.2307/3110350.
3. Heady, Ferrel. Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective, 6th ed. (New York: Marcel Dekker, 2001), 51.
4. PENG, W.-S. (2008). A CRITIQUE OF FRED W. RIGGS' ECOLOGY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. Public Administration Quarterly, 32(4), 528–548. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41288330
5. Jreisat, Jamil E., Globalism and Comparative Public Administration (Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2012), 155.
6. Heady, F. (1998). Comparative and International Public Administration: Building Intellectual Bridges. Public Administration Review, 58(1), 32–39. https://doi.org/10.2307/976887
7. Jreisat, Jamil E., Globalism and Comparative Public Administration (Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2012), 44.
8. ^ FARAZMAND, A. (1996). DEVELOPMENT AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. Public Administration Quarterly, 20(3), 343–364. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40861684
9. Sapru, R. (1979). COMPARATIVE ADMINISTRATION : RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. The Indian Journal of Political Science, 40(3), 466–477. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41854974
10. CHAPMAN, R.A. (1966), Prismatic Theory in Public Administration: A Review of the Theories of Fred W. Riggs. Public Administration, 44: 415-434. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1966.tb01598.x
11. "Administration in developing countries : The theory of prismatic society". 1964.
12. Roberts, Alasdair S. and Manoharan, Aroon, UPSC Examination Papers on Public Administration in India (October 20, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3472631 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3472631
13. ^ "RIGGS: Curricuilum Vitae". .hawaii.edu. Archived from the original on 2009-09-19. Retrieved 2012-02-18.

• Public administration scholars
• 1917 births
• 2008 deaths
• University of Hawaiʻi faculty
• Political science writers
• American expatriates in China
• 20th-century American political scientists