The Administrative State: A Study of the Political Theory of American Public Administration / Edition 1

by Dwight Waldo

Overview

This classic text, originally published in 1948, is a study of the public administration movement from the viewpoint of political theory and the history of ideas. It seeks to review and analyze the theoretical element in administrative writings and to present the development of the public administration movement as a chapter in the history of American political thought.The objectives of The Administrative State are to assist students of administration to view their subject in historical perspective and to appraise the theoretical content of their literature. It is also hoped that this book may assist students of American culture by illuminating an important development of the first half of the twentieth century. It thus should serve political scientists whose interests lie in the field of public administration or in the study of bureaucracy as a political issue; the public administrator interested in the philosophic background of his service; and the historian who seeks an understanding of major governmental developments.This study, now with a new introduction by public policy and administration scholar Hugh Miller, is based upon the various books, articles, pamphlets, reports, and records that make up the literature of public administration, and documents the political response to the modern world that Graham Wallas named the Great Society. It will be of lasting interest to students of political science, government, and American history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412805971
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	12/15/2006
Series:	Library of Liberal Thought
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Dwight Waldo (1913-2000) taught at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Syracuse. He was the author or editor of several books, including Ideas and Issues in Public Administration and The Study of Public Administration, and for eleven years served as editor-in-chief of Public Administration Review. Hugh T. Miller is professor in the School of Public Administration at Florida Atlantic University. He is the author of Postmodern Public Policy and, with Peter Bogason and Sandra Kensen, Tampering with Tradition: The Unrealized Authority of Democratic Agency. His most recent book is Postmodern Public Administration: Revised Edition, coauthored with the late Charles J. Fox.

Table of Contents

PART I The Rise of Public Administration 1 THE MATERIAL AND IDEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 2 A CLOSER VIEW: THE MOVEMENTS, THE MEN, THE MOTIFS 3 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PART II Problems of Political Philosophy 4 THE Goon LIFE 5 THE CRITERIA oF ACTION 6 WHO SHOULD RULE? 7 THE SEPARATION OF POWERS 8 CENTRALIZATION VERSUS DECENTRALIZATION PART III Some Fundamental Concepts: A Critique 9 PRINCIPLES, THEORY OF ORGANIZATION AND SCIENTIFIC METHOD 10 ECONOMY AND EFFICIENCY 11 CONCLUSION: NOTES ON THE PRESENT TENDENCIES