James William Fesler (March 14, 1911 – April 26, 2005) was an American political scientist who was an expert in public administration and a professor at Yale University.
[3] Fesler's published works included The Independence of State Regulatory Agencies (1942), Area and Administration (1949), which explored state/space theory, The 50 States and Their Local Governments (1968) (with Karl Bosworth), Public Administration: Theory and Practice (1980), American Public Opinion: Patterns of the Past (1982), and The Politics of the Administrative Process (1991) (with Donald Kettl).
Fesler served as vice president of the American Political Science Association, associate editor of the American Political Science Review, and editor-in-chief of the Public Administration Review.
[3] He received the Dwight Waldo Award from the American Society for Public Administration in 1986 for his contributions to the literature on public administration, and received the John Gaus Award from the American Political Science Association in 1988.
[3] In Connecticut, he was a consultant to Governor Ella Grasso and to New Haven Mayor Richard C.