DICHOTOMY BETWEEN POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION

POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION DICHOTOMY (WOODROW WILSON)

Ø The study of PA dates back to 19^th century, particularly in 1887.

Ø Before then administration was shadowed into political science

Ø In his essay titled, “The Study of Public Administration” published in Political Science Quarterly, WW struck a new concern for PA

Ø WW created a new dimension which delineated politics from administration

Ø However, scholars have attributed the emergence of PA as a study to the event of Industrial Revolution which started in 1807 and was eventually passed into law by the British Parliament in 1853.

Ø By then, slaves who worked in farms and companies of British and American businessmen had their status changed to ‘workers’; they were no more compelled to work against their wish.

Ø The slaves who had gained knowledge about their freedom started developing haughty attitude and recalcitrance towards work

Ø This affected production and business in US and British companies because not most of the businessmen could afford the expensive machines which were in limited supply

Ø There was then the search for a workable model that could help enhance industrial production since it was obvious that the slave-driving model had been abolished by Anti-Slave Trade Act of British Parliament

Ø Woodrow Wilson, himself being a beneficiary of slave trade business in 1887 initiated a dichotomy between politics and administration

The points raised in favor of dichotomy are as follows:

Ø Politics involves control of the state power while administration involves provision of basic services

Ø The task of PA involves and gives room for professionalism while politics does not. Thus, administrators need to possess technical skills and experience in order to perform more effectively so they need to be kept aside to specialize and concentrate

Ø While politics involves formation of legislations, administration involves implementation, thus, politicians make the laws which administrators implement the laws

Ø Dichotomy encourages neutrality in service. Administrators run the state machinery so they need to be neutral as much as possible in order to focus in their duty without biasness.

This argument led to the formulation of administrative and management theories such as Scientific Management Theory (Frederick Tailor, 1911) and Administrative Managing Theory (Henry Fayol, 1914)

By 1900, discontent had grown against WW’s analogy by authors like John Gaus, Robert Dahl and Herbert Simon who opposed the rationality behind the dichotomy.

Their argument against dichotomy include:

Ø Practice of PA is practice of politics

Ø Clear distinction is not achievable because both politicians and administrators make up the political structures of government

Ø WW’s analogy is largely inconsistent as a specific duty cannot be performed by one side alone without depending on the other.

Ø The gap is too narrow to be recognized

Ø You cannot keep elected officials out of politics within the administration

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