Classics of Public Administration

1. Ancient Roots: Order, Duty, Utility, and Strategy

The history of the world can be viewed as the rise and fall of public administrative institutions.

Foundations of governance. Writings on public administration date back to ancient civilizations like China, Greece, and Rome, recognizing that effective administration was crucial for state survival and success. Early thinkers like Confucius emphasized moral conduct and order in government, while Cicero stressed civic duty and the importance of counsel over military might for the republic's preservation.

Purpose and method. Jeremy Bentham introduced the principle of utility, arguing that government policies should aim for "the greatest happiness for the greatest number," providing a framework for evaluating policy choices based on their consequences. Carl von Clausewitz, though focused on war, offered insights into managing uncertainty and the friction inherent in executing plans, highlighting the gap between conception and reality in any large undertaking.

Enduring relevance. These ancient and pre-modern ideas laid foundational concepts still relevant today: the need for capable administrators, the importance of public service ethics, the evaluation of policies based on their impact, and the challenges of implementing decisions in complex environments. They remind us that the core problems of governing and administration are timeless, predating modern nation-states and bureaucracies.

2. Birth of US Public Admin: Politics-Admin Split & Civil Service Reform

It is getting to be harder to run a constitution than to frame one.

A new discipline. Woodrow Wilson's 1887 essay argued for a science of administration focused on how government is run, distinct from the political questions of who governs or what laws are made. This proposed politics-administration dichotomy aimed to improve efficiency and economy by separating non-partisan administrative tasks from partisan politics.

Merit over spoils. Frank J. Goodnow further articulated the distinction, defining politics as expressing the state's will and administration as executing it, though acknowledging the practical overlap. This theoretical separation provided intellectual support for the civil service reform movement, which sought to replace patronage with merit-based hiring and promotion.

Progressive era context. Reformers like Jane Addams, working in municipal administration, highlighted the failures of existing structures to address social needs, particularly in rapidly growing, diverse cities. They advocated for a more responsive government rooted in understanding the people's daily lives, challenging the founders' assumptions about self-governance and the limited scope of public administration.

3. Scientific Management & Bureaucratic Structure

Everything is very simple in War, but the simplest thing is difficult.

Efficiency through science. Frederick W. Taylor, the "father of scientific management," sought to find the "one best way" to perform tasks through time and motion studies, aiming to increase efficiency and productivity. His principles included scientifically selecting and training workers, obtaining their cooperation, and establishing clear divisions of labor and responsibility between workers and management.

Ideal type bureaucracy. Max Weber's analysis of bureaucracy described it as a rational, efficient organizational form characterized by:

• Fixed official duties and rules
• Hierarchy of authority
• Written documents and files
• Expert training
• Full working capacity
• Stable, learnable rules

Structure for control. This classical view saw bureaucracy as the ideal structure for large organizations, providing control, predictability, and efficiency through specialization, hierarchy, and impersonal rules. It became a dominant model for understanding and designing public agencies.

4. Human Side of Organizations: Needs, Behavior, and Motivation

A want that is satisfied is no longer a want.

Beyond the machine. Challenges to the purely mechanistic view of organizations emerged, emphasizing the human element. Mary Parker Follett highlighted the importance of collaboration and the "law of the situation" over rigid hierarchical orders. Chester Barnard viewed organizations as cooperative systems, stressing the dynamic interplay between formal and informal structures and the need for executives to balance organizational and individual needs.

Hierarchy of needs. Abraham H. Maslow proposed his famous hierarchy of needs, arguing that human motivation progresses from basic physiological and safety needs to higher-order needs for love, esteem, and self-actualization. This suggested that satisfied needs cease to be motivators and that understanding human psychology is crucial for effective management.

Theory X vs. Theory Y. Douglas McGregor contrasted traditional management assumptions (Theory X: people dislike work, need coercion) with a more humanistic view (Theory Y: work is natural, people seek responsibility). He argued that managers' beliefs about human nature shape their leadership style and that realizing human potential requires creating conditions for integration of individual and organizational goals.

5. Budgeting Evolution: From Control to Planning and Politics

On what basis shall it be decided to allocate X dollars to activity A instead of activity B?

Control and accountability. Early budget reform, championed by William F. Willoughby, focused on establishing executive budgets to ensure financial control, accountability, and efficiency, often using line-item classifications. This reflected a primary concern with preventing waste and ensuring that money was spent as authorized.

Management and performance. The next phase emphasized budgeting as a tool for management, focusing on activities and work measurement to improve efficiency. Performance budgeting aimed to link resources to work accomplished, providing managers with data to assess operational effectiveness.

Planning and policy. V. O. Key Jr. posed the fundamental question of resource allocation, highlighting the lack of a theory for choosing between competing programs. Later, PPBS (Planning-Programming-Budgeting System) emerged, aiming to link budgeting to strategic planning and policy analysis by focusing on program objectives and outcomes, although its implementation proved difficult due to political realities and complexity.

6. Policy & Implementation: Analysis, Discretion, and Wicked Problems

Policy analysis aims at providing information that contributes to making an agency politically and socially relevant.

Rationalizing policy. Policy analysis emerged as a field seeking to apply systematic methods, often drawn from economics and social sciences, to evaluate the potential effects of policies before implementation. Yehezkel Dror defined the role of policy analysts in government service, advocating for a policy sciences approach that integrated political and economic considerations.

Implementation challenges. Studies like Pressman and Wildavsky's highlighted the difficulties of policy implementation, showing how "great expectations in Washington are dashed in Oakland" due to the complexity of joint action, multiple actors, and the gap between policy design and execution. Eugene Bardach further explored implementation as a series of "games" played by various actors maneuvering to shape outcomes.

Wicked problems. H. W. J. Rittel and M. W. Webber introduced the concept of "wicked problems" in planning, arguing that complex social problems are ill-defined, have no definitive solutions, and are unique, making traditional scientific problem-solving approaches inadequate. This challenged the idea that all public policy problems are amenable to rational, technical solutions.

7. Federalism & IGR: Interconnectedness and Shifting Power

Intergovernmental relations is, I believe, a term indigenous to the United States, of a relatively recent origin, and still not widely used or understood.

Beyond layer cake. Deil S. Wright defined Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) as the complex, day-to-day interactions among officials across all levels of government within the federal system, moving beyond the simple "layer cake" model of separate jurisdictions. He identified phases of IGR evolution, from conflict to cooperation, concentration, creativity, and competition.

Shared functions. Morton Grodzins's "marble cake" federalism metaphor illustrated the pervasive intertwining of national, state, and local government functions, highlighting that most policy issues involve shared responsibilities rather than neatly divided ones. This underscored the need to understand the dynamics of cooperation and negotiation across levels.

Shifting balance. Martha Derthick examined the changing balance of power within American federalism, noting the increasing influence of the national government through grants-in-aid and regulatory mandates, often reinforced by court decisions. However, she also highlighted the persistence of state discretion and the ongoing negotiation between federal agencies and state/local governments over policy implementation, suggesting a continuous search for Madison's "middle ground."

8. Bureaucracy's Complexities: Dysfunctions, Life Cycles, and Power

The pure type of bureaucratic official is appointed, either by a superior or through the exercise of impersonal competition; he is not elected.

Beyond the ideal. While Weber described bureaucracy as an efficient "ideal type," later theorists identified its potential dysfunctions. Robert K. Merton argued that the emphasis on strict adherence to rules could lead to "trained incapacity" and goal displacement, making bureaucracy inefficient in adapting to new situations.

Organizational dynamics. Anthony Downs analyzed the "Life Cycle of Bureaus," suggesting that bureaus, like organisms, go through stages of birth (often dominated by zealots), rapid growth, maturity, and potential decline or stagnation. He argued that bureaus inherently seek to expand to ensure survival and attract talent, but face internal and external checks on this growth.

Power and discretion. Herbert Kaufman explored administrative decentralization, highlighting the tension between central control, bureaucratic expertise, and the demand for local representation and responsiveness. Theodore J. Lowi critiqued "interest-group liberalism," arguing that the fragmentation of governmental authority among competing interest groups leads to a "crisis of public authority" and makes government impotent in achieving justice or coherent policy.

9. Ethics & Accountability: Public Trust, Values, and Administrative Evil

The ethical and effective conduct of government must provide the model and the leadership for American society.

Watergate's impact. The Watergate scandal highlighted abuses of executive and administrative power, leading to a renewed focus on ethics and accountability in public service. The National Academy of Public Administration's report emphasized the need for stronger ethical standards and mechanisms to ensure responsible government.

Regime values. John Rohr argued that administrative ethics must be grounded in the values of the constitutional regime, asserting that public servants have a moral obligation to uphold the Constitution and the principles it embodies. He suggested that the oath of office provides a basis for a moral community in a pluralistic society.

Administrative evil. Guy Adams and Danny Balfour challenged the adequacy of traditional ethics in preventing "administrative evil," arguing that technical-rational approaches are insufficient to prevent horrific outcomes when sanctioned by legitimate authority. Rosemary O'Leary explored the ethics of dissent, examining the moral dilemmas faced by career bureaucrats who disagree with official policies and the potential role of "guerrilla government."

10. Public vs. Private Management: Similarities, Differences, and Context

Public administration is ultimately a problem in political theory: the fundamental problem in a democracy is responsibility to popular control...

Alike in unimportant respects? Wallace Sayre's aphorism suggested fundamental differences between public and private management. Graham Allison's analysis explored this, finding that while general management functions are similar, the context and constraints differ significantly. Public managers operate under greater legal, political, and public scrutiny, with less clear performance measures and shorter time horizons compared to private managers.

Three approaches. David Rosenbloom argued that public administration theory is pulled in three directions: managerial (emphasizing efficiency, effectiveness, economy), political (emphasizing representativeness, responsiveness, accountability), and legal (emphasizing procedural due process, individual rights, equity). These approaches reflect values associated with the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, respectively.

Context matters. The debate over whether public management is fundamentally different from private management highlights the importance of context. While some private-sector techniques may be applicable, the unique political and legal environment of government shapes managerial roles and responsibilities in distinct ways, making direct transfers of practices problematic without careful adaptation.

11. Personnel & Diversity: Representation, Motivation, and Culture

The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in the solution of organizational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.

Representative bureaucracy. Samuel Krislov advanced the concept of representative bureaucracy, arguing that public agencies should reflect the diversity of the population they serve to enhance legitimacy and ensure that diverse perspectives influence policy implementation. This concept gained traction and influenced civil service reforms aimed at increasing representation of minorities and women.

Motivation beyond money. James Perry and Lois Wise explored the motivational bases of public service, suggesting that public employees are driven by a mix of rational, norm-based, and affective motives beyond simple pecuniary self-interest. They argued that understanding these unique public service motivations is crucial for attracting, retaining, and managing a high-quality public workforce.

Organizational culture and diversity. J. Steven Ott highlighted the importance of organizational culture—the shared values, beliefs, and assumptions that shape behavior—in understanding how organizations function and adapt. R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. advocated "managing diversity" as a strategy to move beyond affirmative action, aiming to create organizational cultures that leverage the full potential of a diverse workforce by valuing differences rather than seeking assimilation.

12. Reinvention & Governance: Efficiency, Networks, and Public Value

Our goal is not simply to weed the federal garden; it is to create a regimen that will keep the garden free of weeds.

Reinventing government. The National Performance Review (NPR) under Vice President Gore aimed to reinvent government by cutting red tape, putting customers first, empowering employees, and cutting back to basics, drawing inspiration from entrepreneurial models and state/local innovations. This effort sought to make government work better and cost less by challenging traditional bureaucratic structures and processes.

From government to governance. The concept of governance emerged, distinguishing the process of governing from the specific institution of government. This perspective recognizes that collective action increasingly occurs through networks involving public, private, and nonprofit actors, rather than solely through hierarchical government agencies.

Public value. Mark Moore's work on creating public value provided a framework for public managers to define success not just in terms of efficiency or compliance, but by delivering outcomes that are of value to the public and are politically legitimate. This concept encourages collaboration and strategic thinking across sectors to address complex public problems.

Last updated: June 11, 2025