Over the last decade, a growing number of public administration theorists have taken up the question of how ontology—assumptions about the nature of existence—shapes our understanding of governance. This substantially updated primer, originally published in Public Administration Review, introduces the essay, provides a basic explanation of ontology, describes the fundamental debates in philosophies of ontology, and discusses why ontology is important to social and political theory and therefore public administration theory and practice. Using an ideal-type approach grounded in differing ontological assumptions, a Governance Typology is provided to support analysis of differing public administration theories. An integrative approach to governance is offered that is grounded in relational process ontology—a foundation that may support a viable synthesis of the other four primary ideal-types. The essay concludes with a call for personal reflection on the part of scholars and practitioners regarding their own ontological commitments and an invitation to collaborative inquiry.

在过去的十年中，越来越多的公共行政理论家开始讨论以下问题：本体论（关于生存本质的假设）如何塑造我们对治理的理解。此基本更新的引物，最初发表于《公共管理评论》，介绍论文，提供本体论的基本解释，描述本体论哲学中的基本争论，并讨论了本体论为什么对社会和政治理论以及公共行政理论和实践很重要。使用基于不同本体论假设的理想类型方法，提供了治理类型学，以支持对不同公共管理理论的分析。提供了一种基于关系过程本体的综合治理方法，该方法可以支持对其他四种主要理想类型进行可行的综合。本文最后呼吁学者和从业者对他们自己的本体论承诺进行个人反思，并邀请进行协作式探究。