This year we are celebrating volume 70 of the Dutch magazine ‘Bestuurswetenschappen’ (Administrative Sciences in English). The first complete volume was published in 1947, but the first issue had already appeared in November 1946, so last month our magazine had its 70^th anniversary. It is an appropriate age to reflect for a moment on the launch of our magazine in this anniversary issue, because 70 is rapidly becoming the new 65. It is also an opportunity for us to pay respect in this editorial to those people who were involved at the launch of the magazine which happened under difficult circumstances (because of the consequences of the Second World War and the huge task of rebuilding the Netherlands). At the same time this homage is an impressive ‘who’s who’ of Dutch (and also partly the international) administrative sciences at that time, with many remarkable and influential characters playing a role. Apart from all the male authors and editors, one woman (Hermine Revers) was the editorial secretary of the magazine. Chief editor was Gerrit van Poelje, who is considered by many to be the founder of Public Administration in the Netherlands.

This editorial offers an introduction to the current issue.