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The Study of Public Administration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Egbert S. Wengert
Egbert S. Wengert
Affiliation:
Sweet Briar College
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Extract

Emphasis on the study of public administration has in recent years become so marked that of all the fields in the study of government it stands out as the most rapidly growing. What Woodrow Wilson called attention to some fifty years ago has in fact become the center of interest in political science. No longer is hard study confined to the problem of making constitutions. The study of administration has concerned itself extensively with the processes and procedures, with the ways of carrying out public policy. However, Woodrow Wilson's advice, recommending the careful determination of the basic political conceptions necessary for the student of public administration, has not always been followed; and the present note is designed to suggest some factors bearing on these basic political conceptions. Specifically, it is to be emphasized that the means through which the state carries on its functions cannot be adequately analyzed except in relation to its ends.

Type
Public Administration
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , April 1942 , pp. 313 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1942

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References

1 “The Study of Administration,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 2, p. 197 (June, 1887), reprinted in ibid., Vol. 56, p. 481 (Dec., 1941). See also the valuable reappraisal of this suggestive pioneer essay by Dimock, Marshall E., “The Study of Administration,” in this Review, Vol. 31, p. 28 (Feb., 1937).Google Scholar

2 See, for example, Stene, Edwin O., “An Approach to a Science of Administration.” in this Review Vol. 34, p. 1125 (Dec. 1940).Google Scholar

3 (Princeton, 1939).

4 The problem is well illustrated in Mayo, Elton, The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization (New York, 1933).Google Scholar

5 See, for a recent statement, Strachy's, John transitional program in A Programme for Progress (New York, 1940).Google Scholar

6 “American Society and Public Administration,” in Gaus, John M., White, Leonard D., and Dimock, Marshall E., The Frontiers of Public Administration (Chicago, 1936), p. 101.Google Scholar

7 Attention is being given increasingly to the need for throwing off simple faith in the idea of automatic progress to a better social order. See, for example, Corey, Lewis, “Marxism Reconsidered,” The Nation, Vol. 150, pp. 245–248, 272–275, 305–307 (February 17, 24, and March 2, 1940)Google Scholar; and Eastman, Max, Stalin's Russia and the Crisis in Socialism (New York, 1940).Google Scholar

8 “The Elements of Democracy,” in this Review, Vol. 34, p. 467 (June, 1940).

9 The additional factor is not to be overlooked that it is sometimes quite futile to attempt simple coercion to get a job done. Thus, many action programs must come to rest on coöperation between official and citizen.

10 For an illuminating discussion, see Herring, E. P., Public Administration and the Public Interest (New York and London, 1936), esp. pp. 334 ff.Google Scholar

11 For a more detailed description of some of the practices referred to below, see Wengert, E. S., “T.V.A. Enlists Local Coöperation,” Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 1, p. 97 (Apr., 1937).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Dewey, John, The Public and its Problems (New York, 1927), p. 75.Google Scholar

13 Not all thinking about organization is done in these terms. See, notably, John M. Gaus, “A Theory of Organization in Public Administration,” in John M. Gaus, Leonard D. White, and Marshall E. Dimock, op. cit., pp. 66–91.

14 Even where the conditions of modern warfare demand individual initiative and ingenuity, the execution of military policy rests on the self-denial implicit in strict obedience.

15 Tead, Ordway, Creative Management (New York, 1935)Google Scholar, and also the same author's New Adventures in Democracy (New York and London, 1939), esp. Chaps. 5. 9, 13.

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