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The purpose of this paper is to recommend that public administration (PA) theory and practice should become more sensitive to its sub-administration, and to suggest how this can be done.

This conceptual paper maintains that this sub-administration includes those ideologies, myths and metaphors that contribute like an unconscious in shaping (and misshaping) governmental policy and administration. Descriptions of the nature of ideologies, myths and metaphors are given, along with some examples of those that are harmful – such as the ideologies of the American Business Model and neo-liberalism.

PA should seek to engage and oppose such ideologies, myths and metaphors that are problematic – both those constructed within and without of PA itself. It is recommended that, for such analytical purposes, PA should turn toward post-traditional PA, including the insights of post-modernism and epistemic pluralism.

The concept of sub-administration is of significant utility both for PA theorists and practitioners in strengthening public administrative performance. The author has offered such and/or similar recommendations in earlier publications, including in the International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior, 19 (1), 90-102: 2016.

Special attention will be given in this part to the process of decline, which is to be seen as antipodal to development, and which nowadays is all too often neglected. By “decline” we mean here the decline of a whole society. But this definition is not yet sufficient to provide us with a very clear understanding. The statement that a whole society is in decline remains void of real meaning until we possess some concrete conception of what a “whole society” and the process of “decline” are. Since the meanings of both these terms are problematical, further explanation and closer precision are called for.