Public Interest and the Social Contract: A Dialectical Approach to the Epistemological Foundations of Public Administration

The public interest has traditionally been the foundation of public administration, but its interpretation remains fragmented as governance evolves. This study argues that this fragmentation arises from a gap between the changing nature of public administration and the epistemological frameworks used to understand it. While social contract theory outlines core legitimating principles such as authority, rights, and collective will, its potential as an epistemological foundation remains underexplored. In contrast, positivism, pragmatism, and constructivism offer limited insights, resulting in a paradigmatic pluralism lacking cohesion. To bridge this gap, this article introduces the Philosophical-Reflective-Dialectical (P-RD) Model, which synthesizes principles from the social contract tradition, dialectical tensions in administrative reality, and reflective learning for ethical adaptability. Through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and abductive reasoning, this study reveals that contradictions in administrative practice, such as values versus procedures, centralization versus participation, and efficiency versus equity, drive epistemological growth. The findings suggest that legitimacy and public interest are dynamic outcomes of the interaction between normative ideals, institutional evolution, and reflective interpretation. The P-RD model provides a coherent epistemological foundation, linking philosophy, governance dynamics, and administrative practice, and framing public administration as a discipline capable of adaptive learning within complex democratic systems.