Download - The Quest for Administrative Salvation

The Quest for Administrative SalvationDemocratic Process and Administrative Law by Robert S. Lorch; Administrative Justice:Advocacy and Change in Government Agencies by Philippe Nonet; Democracy in theAdministrative State by Emmette S. RedfordReview by: Marver H. BernsteinPublic Administration Review, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jan. - Feb., 1972), pp. 70-76Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Society for Public AdministrationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/974495 .

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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW

mobiles, nor would they make it possible to substitute public transit for new expressways and arterials to meet anticipated needs for future

passenger and goods movements. In the face of these facts about the economics of transportation in metropolitan areas, governmental decisions to improve or extend public transit systems, Creigh- ton contends, have to be resolved by the political process.

For the "captive" transit users, these who do not have cars or cannot drive, public policy could define specific areas to be served by mass transportation facilities as well as the standards of fre-

THE QUEST FOR

ADMINISTRATIVE SALVATION

Marver H. Bernstein Princeton University

Democratic Process and Administrative Law, Robert S. Lorch. Detroit: Wayne State Univer-

sity Press, 1969. Pp. 262, $8.50.

Administrative Justice: Advocacy and Change in Government Agencies, Philippe Nonet. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1969. Pp. 279, $8.00.

Democracy in the Administrative State, Emmette S. Redford. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. Pp. 211, $5.00.

At the outset, the reviewer is frank to admit that the central concerns of the three books noted above are so different that a concentration on any theme common to them would do justice to none of them. I propose therefore to characterize each of them briefly and to focus on a topic suggested by Professor Redford's important attempt to analyze the areas of overlap or convergence of

democracy and administration. Lorch has written a commentary on the admini-

strative exercise of legislative and judicial power. His primary concern is the need for control of administrative power in the interest of fairness and democracy. He covers conventional topics of administrative adjudication and rule making, dele- gation of legislative power to administrative agen-

mobiles, nor would they make it possible to substitute public transit for new expressways and arterials to meet anticipated needs for future

passenger and goods movements. In the face of these facts about the economics of transportation in metropolitan areas, governmental decisions to improve or extend public transit systems, Creigh- ton contends, have to be resolved by the political process.

For the "captive" transit users, these who do not have cars or cannot drive, public policy could define specific areas to be served by mass transportation facilities as well as the standards of fre-

THE QUEST FOR

ADMINISTRATIVE SALVATION

Marver H. Bernstein Princeton University

Democratic Process and Administrative Law, Robert S. Lorch. Detroit: Wayne State Univer-

sity Press, 1969. Pp. 262, $8.50.

Administrative Justice: Advocacy and Change in Government Agencies, Philippe Nonet. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1969. Pp. 279, $8.00.

Democracy in the Administrative State, Emmette S. Redford. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. Pp. 211, $5.00.

At the outset, the reviewer is frank to admit that the central concerns of the three books noted above are so different that a concentration on any theme common to them would do justice to none of them. I propose therefore to characterize each of them briefly and to focus on a topic suggested by Professor Redford's important attempt to analyze the areas of overlap or convergence of

democracy and administration. Lorch has written a commentary on the admini-

strative exercise of legislative and judicial power. His primary concern is the need for control of administrative power in the interest of fairness and democracy. He covers conventional topics of administrative adjudication and rule making, dele- gation of legislative power to administrative agen-

quency and rapidity of service to be maintained.

People who must rely on public transportation would then know where they would have to live and work in order to obtain this service. If higher density, open occupancy residential areas near

employment centers that could be served by public transportation were to be developed outside of the central cities, then a variety of living and working opportunities could be made available to those now confined to the center. But these measures would require stronger metropolitan planning and development initiatives by public authority than are now possible.

cies, judicial review of administrative decisions, and fairness in adjudication. He believes that a

type of administrative court is developing in which

hearing officers serve increasingly as administrative

judges, and he recommends that their decisions be made reviewable only in an appellate court. He rejects the feasibility of internal separation of the functions of prosecutor and judge in regulatory agencies and proposes that the union of policy making and adjudication be avoided. His commentary is unexceptional and contributes little to our

enlightenment on the issues that he analyzes. Nonet's fascinating volume traces the process

by which the Industrial Accident Commission of California changed from a welfare agency with broad policy discretion into a relatively passive arbitrator of disputes over industrial accident claims. It is a sensitive, sophisticated study of the transformation of a welfare agency into a court of law. Over half a century since its creation in 1910, the Commission had lost its sense of initiative and public mission, acquired the outlook of a passive arbitrator, and became responsible primarily to the interests it was originally intended to regulate. In accounting for the Commission's retreat from social action to "judicialism," Nonet provides a detailed analysis of dynamic change in an administrative agency in which legalization is conceived as a "natural pathology of administration" (p. 247) that is closely linked to the privatization of the aims of public policy. As a study of the interplay of law, politics, and administration, it is remarkably insightful and indeed profound.

What are "the potentialities for democracy where decisions are made and carried out through administrative institutions?" (p.v). Beginning with

quency and rapidity of service to be maintained.

People who must rely on public transportation would then know where they would have to live and work in order to obtain this service. If higher density, open occupancy residential areas near

employment centers that could be served by public transportation were to be developed outside of the central cities, then a variety of living and working opportunities could be made available to those now confined to the center. But these measures would require stronger metropolitan planning and development initiatives by public authority than are now possible.

cies, judicial review of administrative decisions, and fairness in adjudication. He believes that a

type of administrative court is developing in which

hearing officers serve increasingly as administrative

judges, and he recommends that their decisions be made reviewable only in an appellate court. He rejects the feasibility of internal separation of the functions of prosecutor and judge in regulatory agencies and proposes that the union of policy making and adjudication be avoided. His commentary is unexceptional and contributes little to our

enlightenment on the issues that he analyzes. Nonet's fascinating volume traces the process

by which the Industrial Accident Commission of California changed from a welfare agency with broad policy discretion into a relatively passive arbitrator of disputes over industrial accident claims. It is a sensitive, sophisticated study of the transformation of a welfare agency into a court of law. Over half a century since its creation in 1910, the Commission had lost its sense of initiative and public mission, acquired the outlook of a passive arbitrator, and became responsible primarily to the interests it was originally intended to regulate. In accounting for the Commission's retreat from social action to "judicialism," Nonet provides a detailed analysis of dynamic change in an administrative agency in which legalization is conceived as a "natural pathology of administration" (p. 247) that is closely linked to the privatization of the aims of public policy. As a study of the interplay of law, politics, and administration, it is remarkably insightful and indeed profound.

What are "the potentialities for democracy where decisions are made and carried out through administrative institutions?" (p.v). Beginning with

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BOOK REVIEWS

this overarching question, Redford explores the reconciliation of democratic morality and the reliance of the modern state on administrative decisions. He views administration "as part of a

political process through which benefits are allo- cated to groups and persons" (p 132). He first sets forth basic tenets of democratic morality and the kinds of problems that arise in their application in the administrative state. He then outlines the forces that tend to concentrate, and to disperse, influence in the administrative state. The next several chapters deal with the representation of interests through the policies and operations of the administrative state, treating administration "in terms of programs, institutions, and rules and roles that represent concurrent interests, mediate interests, and reflect choices among interests" (p. 132). Two chapters deal with man as the recipient of the services of the administrative state and man as a worker in an organization of the administrative state. The final chapter endeavors to answer his

opening question in terms of the concept of "workable democracy" as "the most democracy that is achievable under the conditions that have

produced the administrative state" (p. 197). In Redford's analysis, such a democracy results from the responsiveness of administration to the "inclusive representation of interests" and their interac- tion in an open society.

Redford's exploration focuses on administration in the context of a Madisonian system of

fragmented power. Above all, he stresses responsiveness as the central theme of democratic morality and processes of participation in the American political-administrative system. Because it is a

pioneering effort to deal analytically with the real world of that system, it is inevitably controversial in its concept, insights, and conclusions. It tackles with deserving seriousness issues of ultimate signif- icance that many have preferred to ignore or overlook. It demands and merits concentrated

study. In the study and practice of public administra-

tion in the United States, the reconciliation of administration and democratic theory was usually assumed as a given that required no deliberate demonstration or analysis. Since the latter part of the 19th century, a confrontation of the goals and methods of administration by the tenets of democracy was avoided mainly because of the concep- tion of administration as an instrument of reform in the public interest. The following thumbnail sketch hopefully provides some historical perspec-

tive on this condition and underlines the importance of the bold effort that Prof. Redford has undertaken.

Historical Perspective

In his important book, The Administrative State, published in 1948, Dwight Waldo wrote that "whatever else it may be, 'public administration' is a response on the part of its creators to the modern world that Graham Wallas has named the Great Society." Wallas had referred to the emerg- ing industrial society of the post-Civil War period, the time of the enactment of the Interstate Commerce Act, a time when Woodrow Wilson wrote in his early essay, "The Study of Adminis- tration," that "it is getting to be harder to run a constitution than to frame one." Wilson quoted with great relish Walter Bagehot's description of the old and the new in administration:

In early time, when a despot wishes to govern a distant province, he sends down a satrap on a grand horse, and other people on little horses; and very little is heard of the satrap again unless he sends back some of the little people to tell what he has been doing. No great labour of superintendence is possible. Common rumour and casual report are the sources of intelligence. If it seems certain that the province is in a bad state, satrap No. 1 is recalled, and satrap No. 2 is sent out in his stead. In civilized countries the process is different. You erect a bureau in the province you want to govern; you make it write letters and copy letters; it sends home eight reports per diem to the head of the bureau in St. Petersburg Nobody does a sum in the province without someone doing the same in the capital, to "check" him, and see that he does it correctly. The consequence of this is, to throw on the heads of departments an amount of reading and labour which can only be accomplished by the greatest natural aptitude, the most efficient training, the most firm and regular industry.

Although Bagehot's whimsical remarks ap- peared in his "Essay on Sir William Pitt," Wilson considered them directly relevant to his own perception of the continuing increase in the number and complexity of governmental functions and the increasing demands being heaped upon government in the Great Society of the 19th century. "This is why," he stated, "there should be a science of administration which shall seek to straighten the paths of government, to make its business less unbusinesslike, to strengthen and purify its organization, and to crown its duties with dutifulness."

To Woodrow Wilson, administration was a "field of business," "removed from the hurry of

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1972

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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW

strife of politics," standing "apart even from the debatable ground of constitutional study." While administration was said to be a part of political life, "as machinery is part of the manufactured

product," the object of its study was "to rescue executive methods from the confusion and costli- ness of empirical experiment and set them upon foundations laid deep in stable principle." Thus the study of administration emerged as an instrument of reform whose objective generally was the

improved operation of governmental functions. The first effort to seek salvation through

administrative reform began in the mid-19th cen-

tury, focusing on civil service reform. Its objective was to substitute merit or training for party allegiance and patronage in appointment to administrative positions. The original civil service reformers emphasized not greater administrative

efficiency but purified elections and a more wholesome democracy. As Wilson wrote,

we must regard civil-service reform in its present stages as but a prelude to a fuller administrative reform. We are now rectifying methods of appointment; we must go on to adjust executive functions more fitly and to prescribe methods of executive organization and action. Civil-service reform is thus but a moral preparation for what is to follow. It is clearing the moral atmosphere of official life by establishing the sanctity of public office as a public trust, and, by making the service unpartisan, it is opening the way for making it business-like. By sweetening its motives it is rendering it capable of improving its methods of work.

As Dwight Waldo has noted, public administration in the United States has been a self-conscious

response to the degradation and corruption of American politics. It has developed historically as a tool of reform in a rapidly urbanizing society. Its aim has been to make government work better, cheaper, and more responsibly. Its principal em-

phases have been placed on the systematic study of government, increasing the competence and

improving the training of government employees, and concentrating more authority, responsibility, and managerial resources in executives.

Instrument of Reform

The character and tone of public administration as an instrument of reform was profoundly influenced by the period of Progressive reform that

began roughly about the turn of the century. The

Progressive movement was the first American reform effort to struggle with the full range of modern social problems. George Mowry describes

it as a social quest that tried to find solutions for the problems spawned by the great industrial, urban, and population changes of the late 19th

century. It arose in a period of prosperity and

rising prices for the middle class, when few Americans doubted the soundness of the economic and political institutions of the country. As Otis Graham notes in An Encore for Reform, Progres- sive reformers worried about how to limit and control private economic power, how to maintain a just capitalistic order, how to keep careers open to talent and attract talent to public service, how to preserve individualism in an organizing world, how to make cities livable, and how to preserve democratic self-government and make it work

effectively in the national interest. In their remark-

ably energetic efforts to improve the state of the union, they established state and federal programs to regulate economic activity, created new forms of municipal government, modified the electoral

machinery extensively, passed pioneering welfare

legislation, organized settlement houses in slum areas of metropolitan cities, devised educational

reforms, became excited about conserving natural resources, and used the nation's intellectual talent

eagerly to generate reform political movements. At the same time, they were blind to racial problems, ambivalent toward industrial concentration, hos- tile to organized labor, and uncertain in their

response to the needs of new immigrants. Somewhat simplistically, the Progressives ex-

plained the failure of political democracy by the

incompetence, corruption, and depravity of those who operated it. Their principal remedy was to

purify politics - not by raising fundamental constitutional questions, not by designing basic altera- tions in political machinery, not by shifting critically the balance of economic power, but rather by tinkering with the machinery. While

many of the reforms they achieved were on the whole necessary and beneficial, they fell short of their brave, ambitious goals for the reform of

society. Yet these middle and upper-middle class reformers demonstrated a strong sense of social

responsibility with a pronounced humanitarian strain.

In his essay of 1887, Woodrow Wilson defined administration as government in action but separated from politics. While removed from politics, administration, it was said, dealt with technical, mechanical matters; and administrative questions concerned the detailed, systematic execution of

public law. Politics, that is, the concern with


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BOOK REVIEWS

public decisions, could never be made scientific, but scientific study would lead to the discovery of

principles of administration. As Waldo has demon-

strated, the dichotomy of politics and administration remained the basic assumption of the study and philosophy of public administration through the 1920's. It seemed to accommodate fully the

objectives and rhetoric of both civil service reformers and the advocates of scientific management.

Beginning with the researches of Frederick W.

Taylor and others in the 1880's, scientific management sought to regard human relationships in the

production system in an objective way. In its

vision, a world run on principles of scientific

management would be a classless world of uni- versal enlightenment. What began as a study of the one best way to cut metals culminated in a

positivist philosophy of life. Perhaps the most

important contribution of scientific management to public administration was the view that the desired conditions of coordination, harmony, effi-

ciency, and economy must be the product of human management.

The divorce of administration from politics, however vulnerable on analytical and philosophical grounds, produced some positive results. It encour-

aged efforts to make government work more

effectively by recruiting more competent personnel, by becoming more efficient and more eco-

nomical, by raising ethical standards, and by stimulating the development of specialized expertness. Since the 1940's its disabilities have been more widely recognized than its positive contributions. As several writers have noted, it led to a

premature technological orientation; it minimized the creative role of leadership in formulating ends; its scientific pretensions produced great skepti- cism; it was often combined with an unrealistic

perception of the political system; it obscured the vital role of the bureaucracy as proponent of

policy; and it failed to indicate who should exercise the functions of leadership in modern

governmental systems. The Progressive reformers also struggled to

elevate the role of the expert in administration. These efforts reflected in part the growth of

professionalism in American life and underlined the importance of specialization as a key to individual success. Morality in government was no

longer a sufficient goal, and simple honesty was not enough to manage a bureau or design a bridge. Government employees must also be trained for

the task at hand. Faith in the expert became a cardinal element of administrative thought of the

Progressives. Their case for the creation of inde-

pendent regulatory commissions to serve as instru- ments for regulating business enterprise was based

largely on the faith that experts in administrative

agencies would make wise and rational decisions in the public interest provided they remained free from partisan political involvement. A few Progres- sives, however, voiced reservations about faith in

expertness. In his vision of The Promise of American Life, Herbert Croly, the movement's

leading political thinker, wrote in 1909 (p. 361) that the welcome accorded the regulatory commissions:

should not be any more enthusiastic than the welcome accorded by the citizens of a kingdom to the birth of a first child to the reigning monarchs, - a child who turns out to be a girl, incapable under the law of inheriting the crown. A female heir is under such circumstances merely the promise of better things; and so these commissions are merely an evidence of good will and the promise of something better. As initial experiments in the attempt to redeem a neglected responsibility, they may be tolerated; but if they are tolerated too long, they may well work more harm than good.

Perhaps the most trenchant criticism of the limitations of Progressive reform came from Jane Addams, a leader of the settlement house movement and a pioneer in community participation in administration. "Would it be dangerous," she wrote in Democracy and Social Ethics in 1915, "to conclude that the corrupt politician himself, because he is democratic in method, is on a more ethical line of social development than the re- former, who believes that the people must be made over by 'good citizens' and governed by 'experts'? The former at least are engaged in that

great moral effort of getting the mass to express itself, and of adding this mass energy and wisdom to the community as a whole." The good citizen, she said, "is more or less victim to that curious

feeling so often possessed by the good man, that the righteous do not need to be agreeable, that their goodness alone is sufficient, and that they can leave the arts and wiles of securing political favor to the self-seeking."

Business and Reorganization

The preoccupation of the Wilson Administra- tion with the consequences of World War I

brought the period of Progressive reform to an


73




end. Following the heavy reliance on the business

community to administer programs of economic mobilization during the period of direct American

engagement in the war, the goal of administrative reform in the 1920's became predominantly "more business in government." The goals of efficiency and economy, to be achieved by application of business methods, seemed to make the businessman's participation in government respectable.

Business in America has strongly influenced the literature and methods of public administration.

Early support for the study of public administration came not from labor or agricultural groups or from the older professions or consumers but rather from business organizations. The dependence on business was increased by the large-scale development of corporations, and after 1900 the corpora- tion became a favorite organizational device for

public activities at all levels of government. The stock market crash of 1929, however, rendered

meaningless the goal of more business in government. Social conscience became the primary cri- teria for judging administrative performance. The heretical remarks of Peter Finley Dunne's Mr.

Dooley, made in Observations by Mr. Dooley in 1902, seemed to be remarkably relevant to the businessman's fall from grace in the 1930's:

... What th' business iv this counthry needs... is f'r active young pollyticians to take an 'inthrest in it an' ilivate it to a higher plane. Me battle-cry is: 'Honest pollytical methods in th' administhration iv business ....

If reform by moral uplift, extension of civil service schemes, reliance on expertness freed from

politics, and emulation of business organization and methods prevailed at various times since the end of the Civil War, we have never renounced the search for administrative salvation through struc- tured reorganization of the Executive Branch of

government. Since the early 1900's reform by grand design has been an episodic staple of public administration. One of the seminal documents of state reorganization was the Appraisal of the State Constitution and Government of New York, which was prepared for the constitutional convention of the State of New York in 1915 by the New York Bureau of Municipal Research. The document advocated the short ballot, increasing the power of the governor to appoint state officers, abolition of

overlapping terms of office of state officials, elimination of independent boards, reductions in the number of departments, establishment of an executive budget, and adoption of a statewide merit system.

The conventional wisdom of reorganization decreed that the three principal defects in management were the diffusion of authority, confusion in lines of command, and the inadequacy of central staff services. The familiar remedies proposed were the clear fixing of authority at the top of the

hierarchy, establishing clear lines of command from top to bottom, and providing adequate staff aids to the exercise of executive authority. The

spirit of reorganization efforts was the application of standard formula of managerial improvement more or less universally without regard to differences in types of missions, in central executive

authority, and the operating characteristics of the

organizational units comprising an executive's formal jurisdiction.

The reorganization movement was a complex blend of rationalism and utopianism. At times it seemed that the aim of reorganization was to take heaven by storm and to install a philosopher-king in the form of an enlightened chief executive with

adequate authority and resources to act. Here was more than a touch of benevolent despotism, but on the other hand reorganizers perceived government as an instrument for achieving community purposes. More often than not, they deprecated the intricate, fragmented system of shared powers characteristic of American political systems. They often found it hard to conceive of democracy surviving in an untidy, morally deficient setting. The notable exception among major reorganization efforts was the President's Committee on Administrative Management, whose report in 1937 seems to have been drafted deliberately in the traditional vocabulary of reorganization by men with remarkably sensitive and wise understandings of political life. As it turned out, the Committee's

batting average in securing adoption of major proposals has probably never been equalled.

Administration Training

One of the persistent strands of reform en- deavor in public administration has been the movement for better government personnel, which

sought administrative salvation through training and inquiry. The pioneer public service training institution, the Training School for Public Service, was established in 1911 in New York City. It

shortly became the New York Bureau of Municipal Research and later, in 1921, the Institute for Public Administration. In its initial year, the

Training School had less than a dozen students,


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BOOK REVIEWS

but by 1915 it had 25 full-time students. Most of them were mature men enticed from their profes- sion or business by optimistic appeals of government service to work on projects of the Bureau of Municipal Research. Leaders in the Bureau in- cluded such men as William H. Allen, Fredrick A. Cleveland, Lent D. Upson, Ernest Goodrich, Charles A. Beard, Luther Gulick, William E. Mosher, Henry Bruere, Raymond B. Fosdick, Samuel Lindsay, and Howard Lee McBain.

After 1925 the Institute took only advanced graduate students for full-time apprenticeships, and several from the Maxwell School of Citizen- ship at Syracuse University for further training. Established in 1924 as a direct descendant of the Institute of Public Administration, the Maxwell School became the first university program to devote significant resources to higher education for public administration.

These early pioneering efforts had interesting features. Field work was given high prominence in schemes of administrative training. Research activity was consciously used to enable the student to make the transition to public service. The value of combining training in public administration with training in other professions was recognized. And technical subjects were taught successfully to nontechnical students. It is striking that a few American universities have incorporated some or all of these features, apparently without knowl- edge of their earlier development several decades ago.

A few states and cities developed internship and training programs before 1940. Early experimenta- tion in Wisconsin was supported by the energetic administration of the La Follettes and the social science faculty of the University of Wisconsin. The Los Angeles County Bureau of Budget inaugurated an internship program in 1933, and New York City began a program in 1938 in which students participated in research studies on municipal problems. At the federal level, the National Institute of Public Affairs in 1936 initiated a program of internships in the federal government.

The 1930's

In the 1930's a major breakthrough in civil service examinations was achieved for college graduates in the social sciences and the humanities. In 1934 and 1936 the U.S. Civil Service Commis- sion, for the first time, offered these graduates examinations of general intelligence and general

information. The Commission went one step further in 1937 in offering the Social Science Analyst examinations, which were followed in 1939 and 1940 by the first Junior Professional Assistant examinations. At the state level, Wisconsin and later California developed entrance examinations for college graduates with majors in public administration and related fields.

Also during the 1930's several major inquiries into problems of better government personnel were completed. Following the important confer- ence at the University of Minnesota in 1931, the Commission of Inquiry on Public Service Person- nel produced several monographs of substance, and the President's Committee on Administrative Management filed its report on personnel management. Several congressional and executive inquiries followed in the 1940's, and the first and second Hoover Commissions published their reports in 1949 and 1955 respectively. Nongovernmental groups, such as the National Civil Service League and the Committee on Economic Development, have produced significant study documents on personnel management in more recent years.

Another major form of quest for administrative salvation lies in the improvement of administrative housekeeping and specialized staff work. In the 1920's and 1930's we looked mainly to reporting and to personnel management as major processes for improving administrative performance. After the enactment of the Classification Act of 1926, control over appointments and promotions ap- peared to most administrators to offer the best op- portunity to influence the operations under their general direction. After the publication of the President's Report on Administrative Management in 1937, the emphasis shifted to budgeting. When the Bureau of the Budget became the major unit of the new Executive Office of the President in 1939, the Bureau became one of the most attrac- tive employers of recent college graduates inter- ested in jobs in public administration. During World War II, tight labor markets brought about a decline of personnel management as a usable instrument of executive influence or control, and personnel staffs in classification and placement seemed to sink in prestige and competence in management. The President and the heads of large federal departments and agencies tended to rely heavily on their budget staffs to assist them in exercising central coordination and control.

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Post World War II

After World War II some effort was made to

enlarge and improve the staffs in headquarters offices dealing with organization and methods and the improvement of administrative operations. But

management improvement received only fitful

support from top executives, and management analysts rarely made or were infrequently per- mitted to make important contributions to administrative effectiveness. Even the presidency, despite inflated verbal commitments to campaigns of

"management improvement," "work measurement," "manpower utilization," "cost reduction,"

"productivity measurement," and "war on waste," shifted from one currently fashionable managerial skill to another, while according a low priority to

governmentwide programs of management im-

provement. While many factors account for the relative failure of administrative analysts to serve well the cause of strengthening central executive

leadership, one of the major factors has been the

tendency to exaggerate the usefulness of various tools and skills employed by analysts. These tools have usually been oversold and propagandized, and

they tend to produce more data than most executives have been willing or know how to use.

After World War II a major promise for

improving management seemed to some to lie in

program planning. In a few federal departments secretaries added program analysts to help them evaluate programs and order their priorities. Plan-

ning staffs typically have short life, partly because

they depend so heavily on their personal relation-

ship of confidence to a transient political executive and partly because few top executives in

government have the capacity to utilize such staff assistance effectively.

PPB Movement

Finally, the most recent development in the

quest for administrative salvation through specialized staffing has been the PPB movement. In the federal government, program-planning-budgeting staffs were installed very rapidly and with little

regard for departmental differences. Yet PPB

techniques may be of potential or real value to

agency heads striving to develop more unified central control over allocation of resources to achieve priority objectives and to provide more

timely documented evaluations of administrative

performance.

In summary, the modern study and practice of

public administration in the United States emerged as an instrument of reform whose goal was the

improved operation of governmental functions for the betterment of society. Civil service reform became the first goal in a continuing quest for administrative salvation. In roughly chronological fashion, it was followed by scientific management and faith in the expert as major forms of improving administrative performance along increasingly professional lines. These first three manifestations of reform shared the view that administration dealt with the detailed, systematic execution of

public law and must be separated from politics. After World War I, business management provided the model for improved performance of governmental programs. With the onset of the Great

Depression, however, the prestige of business

leadership sagged to the point of total collapse. Overlapping the period from the end of the

19th century to the Great Depression and extend-

ing to the present day, periodic attempts have been made to seek salvation via the route of

reorganization. Other principal reform efforts in- clude the movement for better government personnel through training and inquiry, and the improvement of administrative housekeeping and central staff facilities to enhance central direction.

The quest for administrative salvation has been a dominant force in the study and practice of public administration in the United States. The powerful emphasis on reform that is explicit in the literature and professional practice of the field has usually taken for granted that proposed reforms were not only consistent with democracy but essential to its realization and fulfillment. This is not to say that democratic considerations were always overlooked or treated naively. The record here is mixed indeed. For example, the emphasis on higher standards of ethical conduct of public officers, and on strengthening the formal account- ability of government officers for their actions and decisions, and on the improvement of training and facilities of higher education for public administration have been reconcilable with democratic theory. With respect to the divorce of politics and administration, on the other hand, reconciliation with the basic moral tenets of democracy is uncertain or weak. Concerning processes of participation and inclusive representation of interests in administration, the traditional literature and professional practice of administration is quite barren.


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