Dichotomous Thoughts Flashcards
The Politics-Administration Dichotomy in the US Historical Context
Rosenbloon (2008)
When referring to “politics” the reformers meant what is now considered “partisan” or “electoral” politics. There were not referring to politics over questions of public policy. Dorman Eaton, the primary author of the Pendleton (Civil Service) Act of 1883. Merit system would supply the best public servants, but also safeguard against patronage and favortism. The Progressives, who followed the reformers (1890 or 1900 to 1924), the Progressive Movement could fully achieve its political goals only by further depoliticizing the public service. For progressives, taking PA out of partisan politics by turning over cities to non-elected managers and infrastructure to nonpartisan public authorities was a key part of their strategy. The major difficulties with the dichotomy developed between 1927 and 1936. It was then that the dichotomy was broadened to include politics over public policy. At that point, it became untenable. Returning to the civil service reformers’ original understanding of the dichotomy clarifies a portion of US PA’s intellectual history.
The Politics Administration Dichotomy: An Empirical Search for Correspondence between Theory and Practice
Demir and Nyhan (2008)
The question of how to position PA in relation to politics bears important implications for both the intellectual identity and institutional development of PA. The dichotomy is premised on the idea that PA is somehow distinct from politics, and there is a hierarchical (superior-subordinate) relationship between the two. PA is an instrument used for translating formulated policies into concrete results through the application of specialized knowledge and skills. Demir and Nyhan contend their review of the literature reveals that neither the theoretical logic nor the empirical foundation of the dichotomy has been clearly articulated or comprehensively tested. Politics is a process by which disagreements are worked out and politics ends with laws and policies. The purpose of politics is to provide guidance to PA. Neutral competence is composed of three constructs: expertise, neutrality, and hierarchy. NC is “the ability to do the work of government expertly, and to do it according to explicit, objective standards rather than personal party obligation/loyalty.” Political guidance is composed of two constructs: policy leadership and legitimate oversight.
Doctrines and Developments: Separation of Powers, the Politics-Administration Dichotomy, and the Rise of the Administrative State
Laurence O’Toole (1987)
The separation of powers has had to confront the rise of the administrative state in the US in a period when the P-A dichotomy was employed to explain, justify, and advance fundamental changes in the nation’s constitution. The framers created a certain ambivalence in the statue and direction of American PA. At the time of the rise of the administrative state, this ambivalence fueled among reformers a dissatisfaction with prevailing doctrine though no revolutionary fervor to upset the overall system. Pendleton or Civil Service Act (1883) authorized a competitively selected merit system limiting the political activity, and a Civil Service Commission insulated from the Chief Executive. This act represented an effort to enact the dichotomy. The Budget & Accounting Act (1921) - probably the greatest landmark of our administrative history except for the Constitution. It established an executive budget, and shifting accountability for federal spending from the treasury to the General Accounting Office (GAO). The Hatch Act (1939) prohibited many permanent federal employees from participating in certain partisan political activities and barred political superiors from enticing or coercing partisan support for the bureaucracy. The New Deal period marked the beginning of the modern administrative state. The Government Corporation Control Act of 1945 assisted the tasks of executive and legislature in financial control of government corporations. O’Toole argues the dichotomy has collapsed.
Beyond Dichotomy: Dwight Waldo and the Intertwined Politics-Administration Relationship James Svara (2008)
The P-A debate must be the most slippery intellectual issue in PA. Waldo was not a confirmed or clear-cut critic of dichotomy because he attached qualifications to his challenges; the idea of the dichotomy is still illusive in Waldo’s writings; Waldo was a part of the new approach to thinking about the relationship of politics and administration and a critic of dichotomous division. The dichotomy was a product of the orthodox period of the 1920s-30s and was a soft distinction. Waldo (1955) contributed to the widespread acceptance of the notion that a P-A dichotomy was the founding theory of PA. Dichotomy does not define the total relationship between politicians and administrators. Rather, complementarity entails both the distinctness of the actors as well as their interconnectedness. Dichotomous relationship is “an active exchange within limits.”
