Politics-administration dichotomy

Last updated

The politics-administration dichotomy is a theory that constructs the boundaries of public administration and asserts the normative relationship between elected officials and administrators in a democratic society. [1] The phrase politics-administration dichotomy was first found in public administration literature from the 1940s. [2]

Contents

History

Portrait of Woodrow Wilson 1919 Thomas Woodrow Wilson, Harris & Ewing bw photo portrait, 1919.jpg
Portrait of Woodrow Wilson 1919

Woodrow Wilson is credited with the politics-administration dichotomy via his theories on public administration in his 1887 essay, "The Study of Administration". Wilson came up with a theory that politics and administration are inherently different and should be approached as such. [3] Wilson wrote in his essay in regards to public administration: “The field of administration is a field of business. It is removed from the hurry and strife of politics... Administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics. Administrative questions are not political questions. Although politics sets the tasks for administration, it should not be suffered to manipulate its offices.” [4] With these words, Wilson started a debate that has been going on for decades and continues to this day. The politics-administration dichotomy is an important concept in the field of public administration and shows no signs of going away because it deals with the policy-maker's role as an administrator and the balancing act that is the relationship between politics and administration. [5] This essay is considered to be the first source to be analyzed and studied in the public administration field. [6] Wilson was primarily influenced by Richard Ely and Herbert Adams who taught at Johns Hopkins University. [7]

Perceived Advantages

Woodrow Wilson's politics-administration dichotomy can potentially be substantial in sustaining a strong productive government. The complexity, difficulty level and ample multiplication of governmental functions can be seen as a main component in the cause to implement the politics-administration dichotomy. Due to Wilson's lack of faith in republican self-government and the overwhelming amount of “selfish, ignorant, timid, stubborn, or foolish” persons whom the “bulk of can vote,” this model provides a solution that would counteract the majority of the incumbent voters. By employing the elite philosophical leaders to improve, shape, condition and sway public opinion, politics-administration dichotomy, if carried out in an unselfish manner leaves little to no room for error.

Woodrow Wilson's model created one of the first concepts of checks and balances, which is one of the most predominant systems of democratic accountability used to shape the United States government. Nevertheless, “separating the will of the people from politics” could be extremely beneficial and institutionally separating administration from politics could prove valuable in sustaining government accountability. [8] [9] The politics-administration dichotomy also leads to political neutrality. The blurring of "politics" and "policy" has cause to the advocations to dismiss "partisan politics" rather than "policy politics." The importance of neutrality in politics and policy are established within the politics-administration dichotomy. [10]

Criticism

One criticism of the politics-administration dichotomy is that the standard definition is too narrow. If politics includes all of what we know as policy making, then the dichotomy would bar administrators, presumably including city managers, from participation. The dichotomy of policy and administration was a conceptual distinction underlying a theory of democratic accountability. It was not intended to guide behavior; it was intended as a behavioral prescription directed against contemporary practices of machine politics. [11] The strict definition is the model. It is not conceptually possible to have a one way dichotomy that keeps elected official out of administration but allows administrators to be active in policy. The dichotomy model standing alone is an aberration. [1]

Arguably the father of American political administration, Wilson, in his essay 'The Study of Administration', suggested that in order to have objectivity and progress, the administration must be separate from politics ... The political/administration dichotomy aimed to separate the power between political leaders and the merit-based appointment of professional permanent civil servants in the administrative state ... At the turn of the 20th century, the field focused on making the bureaucracy more effective ... The field’s basic premise was to take a business-like approach to government and its activities. [12]

By Wilson making the statement, "government should be run like a business," he thereby opened up many loopholes for the capitalist society to exploit the government for things they didn't actually have. This statement ends in a very dangerous uncharted territory for people now based on the fact government could be run like a business. The concept "everyone has a boss" with creating the business-like mindset running our country makes it so everyone have to answer to someone (higher on the totem pole) than the other. It creates a sense of working for your job when you are supposed to be working for the people whom you represent. So now, instead of implementing policy to help the people, administrators and politicians are more concerned about who is funding/appointing themselves than they are about the common man. That isn't just the biggest problem of the politics-administration dichotomy, it is a huge problem for the sustainability of our government and the world. [12] [13]

Key People

Related Research Articles

Accountability, in terms of ethics and governance, is equated with answerability, culpability, liability, and the expectation of account-giving.

Public opinion, or popular opinion, is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. The term originates from France, and first appeared in the 17th century, though writers had identified the importance of the opinion of the people long before this. Prior to the advent of mass media, public fora such as coffee houses and gentlemen's clubs were used as exchanges of opinion and some reputable locations had great influence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bureaucrat</span> Member of a bureaucracy

A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can compose the administration of any organization of any size, although the term usually connotes someone within an institution of government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public administration</span> Academic discipline; implementation or management of policy

Public administration, or public policy and administration, is the academic discipline that studies how public policy is created and implemented. It is also a subfield of political science that studies policy processes and the structures, functions, and behavior of public institutions and their relationships with broader society. The study and application of public administration is founded on the principle that the proper functioning of an organization or institution relies on effective management.

<i>Federalist No. 70</i> Federalist Paper by Alexander Hamilton

Federalist No. 70, titled "The Executive Department Further Considered", is an essay written by Alexander Hamilton arguing for a single, robust executive provided for in the United States Constitution. It was originally published on March 15, 1788, in The New York Packet under the pseudonym Publius as part of The Federalist Papers and as the fourth in Hamilton's series of eleven essays discussing executive power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Johnson Goodnow</span> American legal scholar

Frank Johnson Goodnow was an American educator and legal scholar. He was the first president of the American Political Science Association. He was an elected member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

<i>The Administrative State</i> 1948 book by Dwight Waldo

The Administrative State is Dwight Waldo's classic public administration text based on a dissertation written at Yale University. In the book, Waldo argues that democratic states are underpinned by professional and political bureaucracies and that scientific management and efficiency is not the core idea of government bureaucracy, but rather it is service to the public. The work has contributed to the structure and theory of government bureaucracies the world over and is one of the defining works of public administration and political science written in the last 75 years.

Cameralism was a German science of public administration in the 18th and early 19th centuries that aimed at strong management of a centralized economy for the benefit mainly of the state. The discipline in its most narrow definition concerned the management of the state's finances. Throughout the 18th and the first half of the 19th century, cameralism was influential in Northern European states — for example, in Prussia and Sweden — and its academics and practitioners were pioneers in economic, environmental, and administrative knowledge and technology; for example, cameralist accounting, still used in public finance today.

Public administration theory refers to the study and analysis of the principles, concepts, and models that guide the practice of public administration. It provides a framework for understanding the complexities and challenges of managing public organizations and implementing public policies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Street-level bureaucracy</span>

Street-level bureaucracy is the subset of a public agency or government institution where the civil servants work who have direct contact with members of the general public. Street-level civil servants carry out and/or enforce the actions required by a government's laws and public policies, in areas ranging from safety and security to education and social services. A few examples include police officers, border guards, social workers and public school teachers. These civil servants have direct contact with members of the general public, in contrast with civil servants who do policy analysis or economic analysis, who do not meet the public. Street-level bureaucrats act as liaisons between government policy-makers and citizens and these civil servants implement policy decisions made by senior officials in the public service and/or by elected officials.

Phillip David Cagan was an American scholar and author. He was Professor of Economics Emeritus at Columbia University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bureaucracy</span> Administrative system governing any large institution

Bureaucracy is a system of organization where decisions are made by a body of non-elected officials. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials. Today, bureaucracy is the administrative system governing any large institution, whether publicly owned or privately owned. The public administration in many jurisdictions is an example of bureaucracy, as is any centralized hierarchical structure of an institution, including corporations, societies, nonprofit organisations, and clubs.

Arthur Whittier MacMahon was an American political scientist, president of the American Political Science Association in 1946–47, and a pioneer in the academic study of public administration.

The New Public Administration (NPA) is a perspective in public administration that emerged in the late 20th century, focusing on a more collaborative and citizen-centric approach. It emphasizes responsiveness to public needs, community involvement, and the integration of management and social science principles in public sector decision-making. NPA advocates for a shift from traditional bureaucratic models to more flexible and participatory governance structures.

Vincent Alfred Ostrom was an American political economist and the Founding Director of the Ostrom Workshop based at Indiana University and the Arthur F. Bentley Professor Emeritus of Political Science. He and his wife, the political economist Elinor Ostrom, made numerous contributions to the field of political science, political economy, and public choice.

"The Study of Administration" is an 1887 article by Woodrow Wilson in Political Science Quarterly. It is widely considered a foundational article in the field of public administration, making Wilson one of the field's founding fathers, along with Max Weber and Frederick Winslow Taylor.

Bureaucratic drift in American political science is a theory that seeks to explain the tendency for bureaucratic agencies to create policy that deviates from the original mandate. The difference between a bureaucracy's enactment of a law and the legislature's intent is called bureaucratic drift. Legislation is produced by elected officials, but is implemented by unelected bureaucrats, who sometimes act under their own preferences or interests. Bureaucratic drift is often treated as a principal–agent problem, with the House, Senate and Presidency acting as principals and bureaucracy acting as the agent. The government seeks to control bureaucratic drift in a number of ways, most notably congressional oversight and procedural controls.

In public administration, administrative discretion refers to the flexible exercising of judgment and decision making allowed to public administrators. Regulatory agencies have the power to exercise this type of discretion in their day-to-day activities, and there have been cases where regulatory agencies have abused this power. Administrative law can help these agencies get on the path of following regulations, serve the public, and in turn, a reflection of the public's values and beliefs.

This bibliography of Woodrow Wilson is a list of published works about Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States. For a more comprehensive listing see Peter H. Buckingham, Woodrow Wilson: A bibliography of his times and presidency.

Marver Hillel Bernstein (1919-1990) was an American educator, Jewish lay leader, and the 4th President of Brandeis University. He served as a professor of political science at Princeton University and was its first Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. After retiring from Brandeis, Bernstein was a professor of politics and philosophy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He was also former president of the National Federation for Jewish Culture and the American Professors for Peace in the Middle East.

References

  1. 1 2 Svara, James (Jan–Feb 1998). "The Politics-Administration Dichotomy Model as Aberration". Public Administration Review. 58 (1): 51–58. doi:10.2307/976889. JSTOR   976889.
  2. ↑ Overeem, Patrick (2012). The Politics-Administration Dichotomy: Toward a Constitutional Perspective (2nd ed.). CRC Press. P. 10. ISBN   978-1-4665-5899-1. Google eBook. Retrieved on November 27, 2013.
  3. ↑ Stillman, II, Richard (June 1973). "Woodrow Wilson and the Study of Administration". The American Political Science Review. 67 (2): 582–588. doi:10.2307/1958787. JSTOR   1958787. S2CID   144770900.
  4. ↑ Wilson, W., 1887, “The Study of Administration”. Political Science Quarterly, Reprinted in 1997 in Classics of Public Administration, 2d ed. Shafritz, J, and Hyde, A, Chicago: Dorsey Press.
  5. ↑ Reza Tahmasebi & Seyyed Mohammad Mahdi Musavi. (2011). "Politics-Administration Dichotomy: A Century Debate," Revista Administratie Si Management Public, Faculty of Administration and Public Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 2011(17), pages 130-143, November 27, 2013. http://www.ramp.ase.ro/en/_data/files/articole/2011/17-09.pdf
  6. ↑ Link, Arthur S. (December 9, 1968). "Woodrow Wilson and the Study of Administration". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 112 (6): 431–433. JSTOR   985941.
  7. ↑ Rosser, Christian (July 1, 2010). "Woodrow Wilson's Administrative Thought and German Political Theory". Public Administration Review. 70 (4): 547–556. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2010.02175.x.
  8. ↑ Jewison, Blayne (Feb 1996). "A Case For Reinterpreted Dichotomy of Politics and Administration".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ↑ Wilson, Woodrow (July 1887). "The Study of Administration". Political Science Quarterly.
  10. ↑ Overeem, Patrick (June 2005). "The Value of the Dichotomy: Politics, Administration, and the Political Neutrality of Administrators". Administrative Theory & Praxis. 27 (2): 311–329. doi:10.1080/10841806.2005.11029490. S2CID   147405415.
  11. ↑ Montjoy, Robert; Watson, Douglas (May–June 1995). "A Case for Reinterpreted Dichotomy of Politics and Administration as a Professional Standard in Council-Manager Government". Public Administration Review. 55 (3). Wiley: 231–239. doi:10.2307/3110241. JSTOR   3110241.
  12. 1 2 "Urban-imagination: The political/administrative dichotomy". heydeesmeet.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  13. ↑ "American Public Administration and the Idea of Reform". aas.sagepub.com. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.