Administrative Reorganization: An Adventure into Science and Theology

Hyneman, Charles S.

doi:10.2307/2125630

Cited by 18 publications

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“…Even during the 1930s, however, there were diverse views, as Lynn observes. There was recognition of the centrality of discretion to administration (Blachly and Oakman 1934, 36-8;Gulick 1933), the policy role played by administrators (Gaus, White, and Dimock 1936;Haines and Dimock 1935;Hyneman 1939;Pfiffner 1935), and the linkages between administrators and interest groups (Gaus, White, and Dimock 1936;Herring 1936). There was support for giving the lead role in planning to the executive and administrators, with legislators acting as reviewers of plans (Gulick 1933).…”

Section: The Real and Contrived Dichotomymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Myth of the Dichotomy: Complementarity of Politics and Administration in the Past and Future of Public Administration

Svara

2001

Public Administration Review

332

219

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Section: The Real and Contrived Dichotomymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Myth of the Dichotomy: Complementarity of Politics and Administration in the Past and Future of Public Administration

Svara

2001

Public Administration Review

332

219

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“…The orthodoxy of administrative efficiency had been disparaged as far back as the Great Depression (Porter, 1938). Charles S Hyneman, an early commentator on the forms and functions of bureaucracy in a democracy, queried (1939: 67):What does the administrative reorganization program, designed to achieve efficiency and economy, offer to the man whose chief concern is for certain other qualities in his government—whose chief concern is that vision, imagination, and courage predominate in the execution, adaptation, or modification of policy?Earlier still, William H Edwards (1929) wrote dismissively about the “high-salaried efficiency experts” and “public efficiency connoisseurs” who, in his view, valued efficiency over skill and competency in administration of government affairs.…”

Section: Administrative Efficiency: Criticisms Before and Aftermentioning

confidence: 99%

Proverbs of administration at 75: Long live proverbs?

Auer

2021

Teaching Public Administration

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On the 75th anniversary of Herbert A Simon’s “Proverbs of Administration,” it is fitting to consider its place in the public administration canon, with an eye to contemporary realities. In Proverbs, Simon interrogated prevailing mid-century “principles of public administration.” But even as he reduced in rank each “principle,” he preserved a central tenet of earlier pioneers of a “science of administration”—namely that public administration theory should focus, first and foremost, on administrative efficiency. Seven and a half decades after its publication, a clear-eyed examination of Simon’s essay is in order, with attention to both its historical and contemporary contexts. This essay urges that the administrative efficiency tenet was already on unstable ground at the time of Proverbs’ publication, rendering Simon’s reformist agenda less than paradigm-changing. In the contemporary context, the democratic shortcomings of Simon’s agenda are even more apparent. Proverbs is out of synch with the goals for public administration promulgated by respected associations in the field. Simon’s approach also lacks inspiration for students of public service eager to shore up the American democratic project amidst unprecedented challenges.

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“…In the early decades of the twentieth century, progressive reformers often argued that efficiency and economy were the cardinal values in reform. (“With virtually all students of public administration,” Charles Hyneman complained in 1939, “‘efficiency in operation’ was the end of government”; see Hyneman 1939, 64). White himself was said to have encouraged this fixation.…”

Section: Order or Anarchymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Path Not Taken: Leonard White and the Macrodynamics of Administrative Development

Roberts

2009

Public Administration Review

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Leonard White, The Federalists: A Study in Administrative History (New York: Macmillan, 1948). Leonard White, The Jeffersonians: A Study in Administrative History, 1801–1829 (New York: Macmillan, 1951). Leonard White, The Jacksonians: A Study in Administrative History, 1829–1861 (New York: Macmillan, 1954). Leonard White, The Republican Era, 1869–1901: A Study in Administrative History (New York, Macmillan, 1958). This is a review of four books by Leonard White: The Federalists (1948), The Jeffersonians (1951), The Jacksonians (1954), and The Republican Era (1958). In these books, White develops an approach to the study of administrative development that accounts for a broad range of considerations, including political and economic structure, the organization of the international order, popular culture, the stock of available communication and organizational technologies, and executive talent. White also offers an early argument about the significance of path dependence in institutional evolution. White's approach is largely concerned with the macrodynamics of administrative development. It has been neglected within the field of public administration over the last half century. A literature that builds on White's work would improve the field's ability to explain and anticipate failures in state building and administrative reform.

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Administrative Reorganization: An Adventure into Science and Theology

Cited by 18 publications

References 0 publications

The Myth of the Dichotomy: Complementarity of Politics and Administration in the Past and Future of Public Administration

The Myth of the Dichotomy: Complementarity of Politics and Administration in the Past and Future of Public Administration

Proverbs of administration at 75: Long live proverbs?

The Path Not Taken: Leonard White and the Macrodynamics of Administrative Development

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