The institutional model as delineated by classical Public Administration has limited utility for public administration in the developing countries. There are unlikely to be any uniform structural remedies foradministrative defects in those countries. Similar relationships do not have similar consequences in different contexts. An increased awareness along these lines led to the emergence of Development Administration- an effort to relate structures to goals - and Comparative Public Administration - analysis of administrative structures in their own societal contexts. The basic argument of the present articles is that despite our increased sophistication on these matters the relevance in Development Administration cannot be obtained if one relies only on theoretical knowledge. It is noted that in Development Administration thinking must descend from the heights of systematic theory to the open country of praxis.