The Study of Administration
Author(s): Woodrow Wilson
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Jun., 1887), pp. 197-222
Published by: The Academy of Political Science
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VolumeII.]
June,1887.
[Number2.
POLITICAL
SCIENCE
QUARTERLY.
THE
J SUPPOSE
STUDY
OF ADMINISTRATION.
that no practical science is ever studied where
1there is no need to knowit. The veryfact,therefore,
that the
eminentlypractical science of administrationis findingits way
into college courses in this countrywould provethat thiscountry
were such proof of
needs to know more about administration,
the fact requiredto make out a case. It need not be said, however, that we do not look into college programmesfor proof of
this fact. It is a thingalmost taken forgrantedamong us, that
the presentmovementcalled civil service reformmust,afterthe
accomplishmentof its firstpurpose,expand into effortsto improve, not the personnel only,but also the organization and
methods of our government offices: because it is plain that
their organization and methods need improvementonly less
than their personnel. It is the object of administrativestudy
to discover, first,what governmentcan properlyand successfullydo, and, secondly,how it can do these proper thingswith
the utmost possible efficiencyand at the least possible cost
either of moneyor of energy. On both these points there is
obviouslymuch need of light among us; and only carefulstudy
can supply that light.
Before enteringon that study,however,it is needful:
I. To take some account of what others have done in the
same line; that is to say, of the historyof the study.
II. To ascertain just what is its subject-matter.
III. To determinejust what are the best methodsby which
to develop it, and the most clarifyingpolitical conceptions to
carrywith us into it.
I98
POLITICAL
SCIENCE
QUARTERLY.
[VOL. II.
Unless we knowand settle these things,we shall set out without chartor compass.
The science of administrationis the latest fruitof that study
hunof the science of politics whichwas begun some twenty-two
dred years ago. It is a birthof our own century,almost of our
own generation.
Why was it so late in coming? Why did it wait till this too
busy centuryof ours to demand attentionforitself? Administrationis the most obvious part of government; it is government in action; it is the executive, the operative, the most
visible side of government,and is of course as old as government itself. It is governmentin action, and one might very
naturallyexpect to findthat governmentin action had arrested
the attention and provoked the scrutinyof writersof politics
very early in the historyof systematicthought.
But such was not the case. No one wrote systematicallyof
administrationas a branch of the science of governmentuntil
the present centuryhad passed its firstyouth and had begun
to put forthits characteristicflowerof systematic knowledge.
Up to our own day all the political writerswhom we now read
had thought,argued, dogmatized only about the constitutionof
government; about the natureof the state,the essence and seat
of sovereignty,popular power and kinglyprerogative; about the
greatest meanings lying at the heart of government,and the
high ends set beforethe purposeof governmentby man's nature
and man's aims. The centralfieldof controversy
was that great
fieldof theoryin which monarchyrode tilt against democracy,
in which oligarchy would have built for itself strongholds of
privilege,and in which tyrannysought opportunityto make
good its claim to receive submission from all competitors.
Amidst this high warfare of principles,administrationcould
command no pause for its own consideration. The question
was always: Who shall make law, and what shall that law be?
The other question, how law should be administeredwith
enlightenment,with equity, with speed, and without friction,
No. 2.]
THE STUDY
OF ADMINISTRATIOA.
199
was put aside as " practical detail " which clerks could arrange
afterdoctorshad agreed upon principles.
That political philosophytook this directionwas of course no
accident, no chance preferenceor perverse whim of political
philosophers. The philosophy of any time is, as Hegel says,
" nothing but the spirit of that time expressed in abstract
thought"; and political philosophy,like philosophy of every
affairs.
other kind,has onlyheld up the mirrorto contemporary
The trouble in early times was almost altogether about the
constitutionof government; and consequently that was what
engrossed men's thoughts. There was littleor no troubleabout
- at least little that was heeded by adminisadministration,
trators. The functionsof governmentwere simple, because
life itself was simple. Government went about imperatively
and compelled men, withoutthoughtof consultingtheirwishes.
There was no complex system of public revenues and public
debts to puzzle financiers;there were, consequently,no financiers to be puzzled. No one who possessed power was long at
a loss how to use it. The great and only question was: Who
shall possess it? Populations were of manageable numbers;
propertywas of simple sorts. There were plentyof farms,but
no stocks and bonds: more cattle than vested interests.
I have said that all this was true of "early times"; but it was
substantiallytrue also of comparativelylate times. One does
not have to look back of the last centuryfor the beginningsof
the present complexitiesof trade and perplexitiesof commercial speculation,nor for the portentousbirthof national debts.
Good Queen Bess, doubtless,thoughtthat the monopoliesof the
sixteenthcenturywere hard enough to handle without burning
her hands; but they are not rememberedin the presence of the
giant monopoliesof the nineteenthcentury. When Blackstone
lamented that corporationshad no bodies to be kicked and no
souls to be damned, he was anticipating the proper time for
such regretsby fulla century. The perennialdiscords between
masterand workmenwhich now so oftendisturbindustrialsociety beg-anbeforethe Black Death and the Statute of Laborers;
but never before our own day did they assume such ominous
200
POLITICAL
SCIENCE
QUARTERLY.
[VOL. II.
proportionsas they wear now. In brief,if difficultiesof governmentalaction are to be seen gathering in other centuries,
they are to be seen culminatingin our own.
This is the reason why administrativetasks have nowadays
to be so studiously and systematicallyadjusted to carefully
tested standards of policy,the reason whywe are having now
what we never had before, a science of administration. The
weightierdebates of constitutionalprincipleare even yet by no
means concluded; but they are no longer of more immediate
practical moment than questions of administration. It is getting to be harderto ran a constitutionthan to frameone.
Here is Mr. Bagehot's graphic, whimsical way of depicting
the differencebetween the old and the new in administration:
In earlytimes,whena despotwishesto governa distantprovince,
he sendsdowna satrapon a grandhorse,and otherpeople on littlc
horses; and verylittleis heardof thesatrapagainunlesshe sendback
some of the littlepeople to tell whathe has been doing. No great
is possible. Commonrumour
and casualrelabourofsuperintendence
portare thesourcesofintelligence.If itseemscertainthattheprovince
is in a bad state,satrapNo. i is recalled,and satrapNo. 2 sentoutin
his stead. In civilizedcountriesthe processis different.
You erect
a bureauin theprovinceyouwantto govern;youmakeit writeletters
and copy letters; it sends home eightreportsper diem to the head
bureauin St. Petersburg.Nobodydoes a sum in theprovince
without
someone doingthesamesum in the capital,to " check" him,and see
thathe does it correctly.The consequenceof thisis, to throwon the
heads of departments
an amountof readingand labourwhichcan only
be accomplishedby the greatestnaturalaptitude,the most efficient
the mostfirmand regularindustry.'
training,
There is scarcely a single duty of governmentwhich was
once simple which is not now complex; governmentonce had
but a few masters; it now has scores of masters. Majorities
formerlyonly underwentgovernment; they now conduct government. Where governmentonce might followthe whims of
a court,it must now followthe views of a nation.
And those views are steadilywideningto new conceptions of
state duty; so that,at the same time that the functionsof governmentare every day becoming more complex and difficult,
1 Essay on Sir WilliamPitt.
No. 2.]
THE STUDY
OF ADMINISTRATION.
201
they are also vastly multiplyingin number. Administration
is everywhereputting its hands to new undertakings. The
utility,cheapness, and success of the government'spostal service, for instance, point towards the early establishment of
governmental control of the telegraph system. Or, even if
our governmentis not to follow the lead of the governments
of Europe in buying or building both telegraph and railroad
lines, no one can doubt that in some way it must make itself
master of masterful corporations. The creation of national
commissionersof railroads,in addition to the older state commissions, involves a very importantand delicate extension of
administrativefunctions. Whatever hold of authoritystate or
federalgovernmentsare to take upon corporations,there must
followcares and responsibilitieswhich will require not a little
wisdom, knowledge, and experience. Such things must be
studied in order to be well done. And these, as I have said,
are only a few of the doors which are being opened to offices
of government. The idea of the state and the consequent
ideal of its dutyare undergoingnoteworthychange; and " the
idea of the state is the conscience of administration." Seeing
every day new things which the state ought to do, the next
thing is to see clearly how it ought to do them.
This is why there should be a science of administration
which shall seek to straighten the paths of government,to
make its business less unbusinesslike,to strengthenand purify
its organization,and to crownits duties with dutifulness. This
is one reason why there is such a science.
But where has this science grown up? Surely not on this
side the sea. Not much impartial scientificmethod is to be
discerned in our administrative practices. The poisonous
atmosphere of city government,the crooked secrets of state
administration,the confusion,sinecurism,and corruptionever
and again discovered in the bureaux at Washington forbid us
to believe that any clear conceptions of what constitutes good
administrationare as yet very widely current in the United
States. No; American writers have hithertotaken no very
importantpart in the advancement of this science. It has
202
POLITICAL
SCIENCE
QUARTERLY.
[VOL. II.
found its doctors in Europe. It is not of our making; it is
a foreign science, speaking very little of the language of
English or American principle. It employs only foreign
tongues; it uttersnone but what are to our minds alien ideas.
Its aims, its examples, its conditions, are almost exclusively
grounded in the histories of foreign races, in the precedents
of foreign systems, in the lessons of foreign revolutions. It
has been developed by French and German professors,and is
consequently in all parts adapted to the needs of a compact
state, and made to fit highlycentralized forms of government;
whereas, to answer our purposes, it must be adapted, not to
a simple and compact,but to a complex and multiformstate,
and made to fithighlydecentralizedforms of government. If
we would employ it, we must Americanize it, and that not
formally,in language merely,but radically, in thought,principle, and aim as well. It must learn our constitutions by
heart; must get the bureaucratic fever out of its veins; must
inhale much freeAmerican air.
If an explanationbe soughtwhy a science manifestlyso susceptible of being made useful to all governmentsalike should
have receivedattention firstin Europe, where governmenthas
long been a monopoly,rather than in England or the United
States, where governmenthas long been a common franchise,
the reason will doubtless be found to be twofold: first,that
in Europe, just because governmentwas independentof popular
assent, therewas more governingto be done; and, second, that
the desire to keep governmenta monopolymade the monopolists interested in discovering the least irritatingmeans of
governing. They were, besides, few enough to adopt means
promptly.
It will be instructiveto look into this matter a little more
closely. In speaking of European governmentsI do not, of
course, include England. She has not refused to change with
the times. She has simplytemperedthe severityof the transition froma polityof aristocraticprivilegeto a system of democratic power by slow measures of constitutionalreformwhich,
withoutpreventingrevolution,has confinedit to paths of peace.
No. 2.]
THE STUDY
OF ADMINISTRATIONr.
203
But the countries of the continentfor a long time desperately
struggledagainst all change, and would have diverted revolution by softeningthe asperities of absolute government. They
sought so to perfecttlleirmachineryas to destroyall wearing
friction,so to sweeten theirmethodswith considerationfor the
interests of the governed as to placate all hinderinghatred,
and so assiduously and opportunelyto offertheir aid to all
classes of undertakingsas to render themselves indispensable
to the industrious. They did at last give the people constitutions and the franchise; but even after that they obtained
leave to continue despotic by becoming paternal. They made
themselves too efficientto be dispensed with, too smoothly
operative to be noticed,too enlightened to be inconsiderately
questioned, too benevolent to be suspected, too powerfulto
be coped with. All this has required study; and they have
closely studied it.
On this side the sea we, the while,had known no great difficulties of government. With a new country,in which there
was room and remunerativeemploymentfor everybody,with
liberal principlesof governmentand unlimitedskill in practical
politics,we were long exempted fromthe need of being anxiously carefulabout plans and methods of administration. We
have naturallybeen slow to see the use or significanceof those
manyvolumes of learned researehand painstaking examination
into the ways and means of conducting governmentwhich the
presses of Europe have been sending to our libraries. Like a
lusty child, governmentwith us has expanded in nature and
growngreat in stature,but has also become awkward in movement. The vigor and increase of its life has been altogether
out of proporticnto its skill in living. It has gained strength,
but it has not acquired deportment. Great, therefore,as has
been our advantage over the countries of Europe in point of
ease and health of constitutionaldevelopment,now that the
time for more careful administrativeadjustments and larger
administrativeknowledge has come to us, we are at a signal
disadvantage as compared with the transatlanticnations; and
this forreasons which I shall tryto make clear.
204
POLITICAL
SCELWCE QUARTERLY.
[VOL. II.
Judging by the constitutionalhistories of the chief nations
of the modernworld,there may be said to be three periods of
growththroughwhich governmenthas passed in all the most
highly developed of existing systems, and through which it
promisesto pass in all the rest. The firstof these periods is
that of absolute rulers,and of an administrativesystemadapted
to absolute rule; the second is that in which constitutionsare
framedto do away with absolute rulers and substitute popular
control, and in which administrationis neglected for these
higherconcerns; and the third is that in which the sovereign
people undertaketo develop administrationunder this new constitutionwhich has broughtthem into power.
Those governmentsare now in the lead in administrative
practice which had rulers still absolute but also enlightened
when those moderndays of political illuminationcame in which
it was made evidentto all but the blind thatgovernorsare properly only the servants of the governed. In such governments
administrationhas been organizedto subserve the general weal
with the simplicityand effectivenessvouchsafed only to the
undertakingsof a single will.
Such was the case in Prussia, forinstance,where administration has been most studied and most nearlyperfected. Frederic
the Great, stern and masterfulas was his rule, still sincerely
professed to regard himself as only the chief servant of the
state, to considerhis great officea public trust; and it was he
who, buildingupon the foundationslaid by his father,began to
organize the public service of Prussia as in very earnest a service of the public. His no less absolute successor, Frederic
William III, under the inspirationof Stein, again, in his turn,
advanced the work still further,planning many of the broader
structuralfeatures which give firmnessand formto Prussian
administrationto-day. Almost the whole of the admirable system has been developed by kinglyinitiative.
Of similaroriginwas the practice,if not the plan, of modern
French administration,with its symmetricaldivisions of territory and its orderly gradations of office. The days of the
Revolution- of the Constituent Assembly - were days of
No. 2.]
THE STUDY
OF ADMINISTRATION.
205
but they can hardly be called days of
constitution-writizg,
The Revolution heraldeda period of conconstitution-makintg.
stitutionaldevelopment,-the entranceof France upon the second of those periods which I have enumerated,- but it did not
itself inaugurate such a period. It interruptedand unsettled
absolutism, but did not destroy it. Napoleon succeeded the
monarchsof France, to exercise a power as unrestrictedas they
had ever possessed.
The recasting of French administrationby Napoleon is,
therefore,my second example of the perfectingof civil machinery by the single will of an absolute rulerbeforethe dawn of a
constitutionalera. No corporate,popular will could ever have
effected arrangements such as those which Napoleon commanded. Arrangements so simple at the expense of local
prejudice, so logical in their indifferenceto popular choice,
might be decreed by a ConstituentAssembly, but could be
established only by the unlimited authorityof a despot. The
systemof the yearVIII was ruthlesslythoroughand heartlessly
perfect. It was, besides, in large part,a returnto the despotism
that had been overthrown.
Among those nations,on the otherhand,which enteredupon
a season of constitution-making
and popular reformbefore administrationhad received the impressof liberalprinciple,administrative improvementhas been tardy and half-done. Once a
nation has embarkedin the business of manufacturingconstituto close out that business
tions, it findsit exceedinglydifficult
and open forthe public a bureau of skilled,economical administration. There seems to be no end to the tinkeringof constitutions. Your ordiniaryconstitutionwill last you hardly ten
years withoutrepairsor additions; and the time foradministrative detail comes late.
Here, of course,our examples are Eng,landand our own country. In the days of the Angevin kings,beforeconstitutionallife
had taken root in the Great Charter,legal and administrative
reformsbegan to proceed with sense and vigor under the impulse of Henry II's shrewd,busy, pushing, indomitablespirit
and purpose; and kinglyinitiativeseemed destined in England,
206
POLITICAL
SCIENCE
QUARTERLY.
EVOL.II.
as elsewhere,to shape governmental
growthat its will. But
errantRichardand weak,despicableJohnwere not
impulsive,
the mento carryout suchschemesas theirfather's. Administrativedevelopment
gave place in theirreignsto constitutional
struggles; and Parliamentbecame king beforeany English
monarchhad had the practicalgenius or the enlightenedconscienceto devise just and lastingformsforthe civil serviceof
the state.
The English race, consequently,
has long and successfully
studiedthe art of curbingexecutivepower to the constant
neglectof the art of perfecting
executivemethods. It has
than in energizing
exerciseditselfmuch morein controlling
government.It has been moreconcernedto rendergovernmentjust and moderatethan to make it facile,well-ordered,
and effective.Englishand Americanpoliticalhistoryhas been
but of legislative
notof administrative
a history,
development,
in governmental
- notof progress
but
oversight,
organization,
and politicalcriticism.Consequently,
ofadvancein law-making
we havereacheda timewhenadministrative
studyand creation
are imperatively
necessaryto thewell-being
ofourgovernments
saddledwiththehabitsof a longperiodofconstitution-making.
That periodhas practically
closed,so faras the establishment
of essentialprinciplesis concerned,but we cannotshake off
its atmosphere.We go on criticizing
when we oughtto be
creating. We have reachedthe thirdof the periodsI have
mentioned,
-the period,namely,when the people have to
in accordancewith the constitutions
develop administration
theywonforthemselvesin a previousperiodof strugglewith
absolutepower; butwe are not preparedforthe tasks of the
newperiod.
Such an explanationseems to affordthe onlyescape from
blankastonishment
at thefactthat,in spite of ourvast advanand aboveall in pointofpractages in pointof politicalliberty,
ticalpoliticalskill and sagacity,so manynationsare ahead of
skill. Why,
us in administrative
and administrative
organization
forinstance,have we but just begun purifying
a civil service
whichwas rottenfull fifty
years ago? To say that slavery
No. 2.]
THE STUDY OF ADMIKISTRATZOr.
207
diverted us is but to repeat what I have said- that flaws in
our constitutiondelayed us.
Of course all reasonable preferencewould declare for this
English and American course of politics ratherthan for that
of any European country. We should not like to have had
Prussia's historyforthe sake of having Prussia's administrative
skill; and Prussia's particular system of administrationwould
quite suffocateus. It is better to be untrainedand freethan
to be servileand systematic. Still there is' no denyingthat it
would be better yet to be both free in spiritand proficientin
practice. It is this even more reasonable preferencewhich impels us to discoverwhat there may be to hinderor delay us in
science of administration.
naturalizingthis much-to-be-desired
What, then,is thereto prevent?
Well, principally,popular sovereignty. It is harder for dethanformonarchy. The very
mocracyto organizeadministration
completeness of our most cherished political successes in the
past embarrasses us. We have enthronedpublic opinion; and
it is forbiddenus to hope duringits reignforany quick schooling of the sovereign in executive expertness or in the conditions of perfectfunctionalbalance in government. The very
fact that we have realized popular rule in its fulnesshas made
the task of organizing that rule just so much the more difficult.
In orderto make any advance at all we must instructand persuade a multitudinousmonarchcalled public opinion,- a much
less feasible undertakingthan to influencea single monarch
called a king. An individualsovereignwill adopt a simple plan
and carryit out directly: he will have but one opinion,and he
will embodythat one opinion in one command. But this other
sovereign, the people, will have a score of differingopinions.
They can agree upon nothing simple: advance must be made
through compromise,by a compounding of differences,by a
trimmingof plans and a suppression of too straightforward
principles. There will be a succession of resolves running
through a course of years, a dropping fire of commands running through a whole gamut of modifications.
In government,as in virtue,the hardest of hard things is
208
POLITICAL
SCIENCE
QUARTERLY.
[VOL. II.
to make progress. Formerlythe reason for this was that the
single person who was sovereign was generally either selfish,
ignorant,timid, or a fool,-albeit
there was now and again
one who was wise. Nowadays the reason is that the many,the
people, who are sovereignhave no single ear which one can approach,and are selfish,ignorant,timid,stubborn,or foolishwith
the selfishnesses,the ignorances,the stubbornnesses,the timidities, or the folliesof several thousand persons,-albeit there
are hundreds who are wise. Once the advantage of the reformerwas that the sovereign's mind had a definitelocality,
that it was contained in one man's head, and that consequently
it could be gottenat; thoughit was his disadvantage that that
mind learned only reluctantlyor only in small quantities, or
was under the influenceof some one who let it learn only the
wrong things. Now, on the contrary,the reformeris bewildered by the fact that the sovereign's mind has no definite
locality,but is contained in a votingmajorityof several million
heads; and embarrassed by the fact that the mind of this sovereign also is underthe influenceof favorites,who are none the
less favoritesin a good old-fashionedsense of the word because
they are not persons but preconceived opinions; i.e., prejudices which are not to be reasoned with because theyare not
the childrenof reason.
Wherever regard for public opinion is a firstprinciple of
government,practical reformmust be slow and all reformmust
be fullof compromises. For whereverpublic opinion exists it
must rule. This is now an axiom half the world over,and will
presentlycome to be believed even in Russia. Whoever would
effecta change in a modern constitutionalgovernmentmust
firsteducate his fellow-citizensto want some change. That
done, he must persuade them to want the particular change
he wants. He must firstmake public opinion willingto listen
and then see to it that it listen to the right things. He must
stir it up to search foran opinion,and then manage to put the
in its way.
rightopirnion
The firststep is not less difficultthan the second. With
opinions,possession is more than nine points of the law. It is
No. 2.]
THE STUDY OF ADMIVZSTRATJOr.
209
next to impossible to dislodge them. Institutions which one
generation regards as only a makeshiftapproximationto the
realization of a principle,the next generation honors as the
nearest possible approximationto that principle,and the next
worships as the principle itself. It takes scarcely three generations for the apotheosis. The grandsonaccepts his grandfather's hesitating experimentas an integralpart of the fixed
constitutionof nature.
Even if we had clear insight into all the political past, and
could formout of perfectlyinstructedheads a few steady,infallible, placidly wise maxims of government into which all
sound political doctrine would be ultimatelyresolvable,woulld
the countryact otnthem? That is the question. The bulk of
mankind is rigidlyunphilosophical,and nowadays the bulk of
mankindvotes. A truth must become not onilyplain but also
commonplace before it will be seen by the people who go to
theirworkveryearly in the morning,;and not to act upon it
must involve great and pinching inconveniencesbefore these
same people will make up theirminds to act upon it.
And where is this unphilosophical bulk of mankind more
multifariousin its compositionthan in the United States? To
know the public mind of this country,one must know the mind,
not of Americans of the older stocks only,but also of Irishmen,
of Germans, of negroes. In order to get a footingfor new
doctrine,one must influenceminds cast in everymould of race,
minds inheritingeverybias of environment,warped by the histories of a score of differentnations,warmed or chilled,closed
or expanded by almost everyclimate of the globe.
So much,then,forthe historyof the studyof administration,
and the peculiarly difficultconditions under which, entering
upon it when we do, we must undertake it. What, now, is
the subject-matterof this study,and what are its characteristic
objects ?
II.
The field of administrationis a fieldof business. It is removed fromthe hurryand strifeof politics; it at most points
stands apart even fromthe debatable groundof constitutional
210
POLITICAL
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QUARTERLY.
[VOL. Il.
study. It is a part of political life only as the methodsof the
counting-houseare a part of the life of society; only as machineryis part of the manufacturedproduct. But it is, at the
same time,raised veryfar above the dull level of mere technical detail by the fact that throughits greater principles it is
directlyconnectedwith the lasting maximsof political wisdom,
the permanenttruthsof politicalprogress.
The object of administrativestudyis to rescue executivemethods fromthe confusionand costliness of empiricalexperiment
and set them upon foundationslaid deep in stable principle.
It is forthis reason that we must regard civil-servicereform
in its presentstages as but a prelude to a fuller administrative
reform. We are now rectifyingmethods of appointment; we
must go on to adjust executivefunctionsmore fitlyand to prescribe better methods of executive organization and action.
Civil-servicereformis thus but a moral preparationforwhat is
to follow. It is clearingthe moralatmosphereof officiallife by
establishingthe sanctityof public officeas a public trust,and,
by making the service unpartisan,it is opening the way for
making it businesslike. By sweetening its motives it is rendering it capable of improvingits methods of work.
Let me expand a little what I have said of the province of
administration. Most importantto be observed is the truth
already so much and so fortunatelyinsisted upon by our civilservice reformers;namely,that administrationlies outside the
proper sphere of politics. Administrativequestions are not
political questions. Although politics sets the tasks for adit should not be sufferedto manipulate its offices.
ministration,
distinction
of high authority; eminentGerman writThis is
ers insist upon it as of course. Bluntschli,lforinstance,bids us
separate administrationalike frompolitics and from law. Politics, he says, is state activity "in things great and universal,"
while "administration,on the other hand," is "the activityof
the state in individual and small things. Politics is thus the
special provinceof the statesman,administrationof the technical official." "Policy does nothingwithoutthe aid of adminis1 Politik,S. 467.
No. 2.]
THE STUDY
OF ADMIAISTRATION.
211
tration"; but administrationis not thereforepolitics. But we
do not require German authorityforthis position; this discriminationbetween administrationand politics is now, happily,too
obvious to need furtherdiscussion.
There is another distinctionwhich must be worked into all
our conclusions, which, though but another side of that between administrationand politics,is not quite so easy to keep
sight of: I mean the distinction between constitutionaland
administrativequestions, between those governmentaladjustments which are essential to constitutionalprinciple and those
which are merely instrumentalto the possibly changing purposes of a wisely adapting convenience.
One cannot casily make clear to everyone just where administrationresides in the various departmentsof any practicable
governmentwithoutentering,upon particulars so numerous as
to confuseand distinctionsso minute as to distract. No lines
of demarcation,setting apart administrativefromnon-administrativefunctions,can be run between this and that department
of governmentwithout being run up hill and down dale, over
dizzy heights of distinctionand throughdense jungles of statutory enactment,hither and thitheraround "ifs" and "buts,"
" whens" and " howevers,"untilthey become altogetherlost to
the commoneye not accustomed to this sort of surveying,and
consequently not acquainted with the use of the theodolite of
logical discernment. A great deal of administrationgoes about
to most of the world,being confoundednow with politincog-nito
ical " management,"and again with constitutionalprinciple.
Perhaps this ease of confusionmay explain such utterances
as that of Niebuhr's: " Liberty," he says, " depends incomparably more upon administrationthan upon constitution." At
firstsight this appears to be largelytrue. Apparentlyfacility
in the actual exercise of libertydoes depend more upon administrative arrangements than upon constitutional guarantees;
although constitutionalguarantees alone secure the existence
of liberty. But - upon second thought- is even so much as
this true? Liberty no more consists in easy functionalmovement than intelligence consists in the ease and vigor with
2I2
POLI7TCAL SCIENCE
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[VOL. II.
which the limbs of a strong man move. The principles that
rule withinthe man, or the constitution,are the vital springsof
liberty or servitude. Because dependence and subjection are
withoutchains, are lightened by every easy-workingdevice of
considerate,paternal government,they are not therebytransformedinto liberty. Liberty cannot live apart fromconstitutional principle; and no administration,however perfectand
liberal its methods,can give men more than a poor counterfeit
of libertyif it rest upon illiberalprinciplesof government.
A clear view of the differencebetween the province of constitutional law and the province of administrativefunction
ought to leave no room for misconception; and it is possible
to name some roughlydefinitecriteria upon which such a view
can be built. Public administrationis detailed and systematic
executionof public law. Every particularapplicationof general
law is an act of administration. The assessment and raising of
taxes, forinstance,the hanging of a criminal,the transportation
and deliveryof the mails, the equipment and recruitingof the
army and navy, etc., are all obviously acts of admninistration;
but the general laws which direct these things to be done are
as obviouslyoutside of and above administration. The broad
plans of governmentalaction are not administrative; the cletailed executionof such plans is administrative. Constitutions,
therefore,properlyconcern themselves only with those instrumentalities of governmentwhich are to control general law.
Our federalconstitutionobserves this principlein saying nothing of even the greatest of the purely executive offices,and
speaking only of that Presidentof the Union who was to share
the legislativeand policy-makingfunctionsof government,only
of those judges of highest jurisdictionwho were to interpret
and guard its principles,and not of those who were merelyto
give utteranceto them.
This is not quite the distinctionbetween Will and answering
Deed, because the administratorshould have and does have a
will of his own in the choice of means for accomplishinghis
work. He is not and ought not to be a mere passive instrument. The distinctionis between general plans and special
means.
No. 2.]
THE STUDY OF ADMIXISTRATION.
2I3
There is, indeed, one point at which administrativestudies
trenchon constitutionalground- or at least upon what seems
constitutionalground. The studyof administration,philosophically viewed, is closely connected with the study of the proper
distributionof constitutionalauthority. To be efficientit must
discover the simplestarrangementsby which responsibilitycan
be unmistakablyfixed upon officials; the best way of dividing
authoritywithout hampering it, and responsibilitywithout obscuringit. And this question of the distributionof authority,
when taken into the sphere of the higher,the originatingfunctions of government,is obviouslya central constitutionalquestion. If administrativestudy can discoverthe best principles
upon which to base such distribution,it will have done constitutional study an invaluable service. Montesquieu did not, I
am convinced,say the last wordon this head.
To discoverthe best principle forthe distributionof authority is of greater importance,possibly,under a democratic system, where officialsserve many masters, than under others
where they serve but a few. All sovereigns are suspicious of
theirservants,and the sovereignpeople is no exception to the
? If
rule; but how is its suspicion to be allayed by know/edge
that suspicion could but be clarifiedinto wise vigilance,it would
be altogethersalutary; if that vigilance could be aided by the
unmistakable placing of responsibility,it would be altogether
beneficent. Suspicion in itself is never healthful eitherin the
privateor in the public mind. Trust is strengthin all relations
of life; and, as it is the officeof the constitutionalreformerto
create conditionsof trustfulness,so it is the officeof the administrativeorganizerto fitadministrationwith conditionsof clearcut responsibilitywhich shall insure trustworthiness.
And let me say that large powers and unhampered discretion
seem to me the indispensableconditionsof responsibility. Public attention must be easily directed,in each case of good or
bad administration,to just the man deserving of praise or
blame. There is no danger in power, if only it be not irre,
sponsible. If it be divided,dealt out in shares to many,it is
obscured; and if it be obscured, it is made irresponsible. But
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if it be centredin heads of the service and in heads of
branchesof the service,it is easilywatchedand broughtto
a manmustachieveopenand honest
book. If to keep his office
with
success,and if at thesame timehe feelshimselfintrusted
thegreaterhis powerthe less likely
ofdiscretion,
largefreedom
is he to abuse it,the moreis he nervedandsoberedandelevated
by it. The less his power,the moresafelyobscureand unnoticeddoes he feelhis positionto be, and the morereadilydoes
he relapseintoremissness.
Juistherewe manifestly
emergeupon the fieldof that still
largerquestion,- the properrelationsbetweenpublic opinion
and administration.
to be disclosed,and by
To whomis officialtrustworthiness
to lookto the public
whomis it to be rewarded? Is the official
or onlyto his
forhis meedof praiseand his pushof promotion,
superiorin office? Are the people to be called in to settle
administrative
disciplineas theyare called in to settleconsti? These questionsevidently
findtheirroot
tutionalprinciples
the fundamental
in whatis undoubtedly
problemof thiswhole
study. That problemis: What part shall publicopiniontake
?
in theconductofadministration
The rightanswerseemsto be, thatpublicopinionshall play
critic.
the partofauthoritative
shallbe made to tell?
bywhichits authority
But themethod
in organizing
administration
is
Our peculiarAmericandifficulty
but the dangerof not being
not the dangerof losing liberty,
able or willingto separateits essentialsfromits accidents.
Our success is made doubtfulby that besettingerrorof ours,
the errorof tryingto do too muchbyvote. Self-government
does notconsistin havinga handin everything,
anymorethan
consistsnecessarilyin cookingdinnerwithone's
housekeeping
ownhands. The cookmustbe trustedwitha large discretion
ofthefiresand the ovens.
as to themanagement
In thosecountriesin whichpublicopinionhas yet to be instructedin its privileges,yet to be accustomedto havingits
ownway,thisquestionas to the provinceof public opinionis
muchmorereadilysoluble than in this country,
wherepublic
No. 2.]
THE STUDY OF ADMINISTRATION.
215
opinionis wide awake and quite intentupon having its own way
anyhow. It is patheticto see a whole book writtenbya German
professorof political science for the purpose of saying to his
countrymen," Please try to have an opinion about national
affairs"; but a public which is so modest may at least be expected to be verydocile and acquiescent in learningwhat things
it has not a right to think and speak about imperatively. It
may be sluggish,but it will not be meddlesome. It will submit
to be instructedbefore it tries to instruct. Its political education will come before its political activity. In trying to
instructour own public opinion, we are dealing with a pupil
instructedbeforehand.
apt to thinkitselfquite sufficiently
The problemis to make public opinion efficientwithout sufferingit to be meddlesome. Directly exercised,in the oversight
of the daily details and in the choice of the daily means of government,public criticismis of course a clumsynuisance, a rustic handling delicate machinery. But as superintendingthe
greaterforcesof formativepolicy alike in politics and administration,public criticismis altogethersafe and beneficent,altogether indispensable. Let administrativestudy find the best
means forgiving public criticismthis control and forshutting
it out fromall otherinterference.
But is the whole duty of administrativestudydone when it
has taught the people what sort of administrationto desire and
demand,and how to get what theydemand? Ought it not to
go on to drillcandidates forthe public service?
There is an admirable movementtowards universal political
education now afoot in this country. The time will soon come
when no college of respectabilitycan affordto do without a
well-filledchair of political science. But the education thus
imparted will go but a certain length. It will multiplythe
number of intelligentcritics of government,but it will create
no competentbody of administrators. It will prepare the way
forthe developmentof a sure-footedunderstandingof the general principlesof government,but it will not necessarilyfoster
skill in conductinggovernment. It is an education which will
equip legislators,perhaps,but not executive officials. If we are
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POLITICAL
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[VOL. II.
to improvepublicopinion,whichis themotivepowerofgovernment,we must prepare betterofficialsas the apparatus of gov-
ernment. If we are to putin newboilersand to mendthefires
we mustnotleave the
machinery,
whichdriveourgovernmental
old wheelsand jointsand valvesand bands to creak and buzz
and clatteron as best theymay at biddingof the new force.
thereis the least
We mustputin newrunningpartswherever
or adjustment.It willbe necessaryto organize
lack ofstrength
examinations
for
democracy
by sendingup to the competitive
the civil servicemen definitely
preparedforstandingliberal
tests as to technicalknowledge. A technicallyschooledcivil
have becomeindispensable.
servicewillpresently
I knowthat a corps of civil servantspreparedby a special
intoa perfected
organschoolingand drilled,afterappointment,
disciization,with appropriatehierarchyand characteristic
personsto conpline,seems to a greatmanyverythoughtful
tain elementswhich mightcombineto make an offensive
body with sympaofficialclass,- a distinct,semi-corporate
free-spirited
people,
thiesdivorcedfromthoseof a progressive,
to
meanness
of
a
narrowed
the
officialand withhearts
bigoted
ism. Certainlysuch a class would be altogetherhatefuland
harmfulin the United States. Any measurescalculatedto
produceit would forus be measuresof reactionand of folly.
illiberalofficialism
But to fearthe creationof a domineeringr,
as a resultofthestudiesI am here proposingis to miss altogetherthe principleupon whichI wish most to insist. That
in the United States mustbe
principleis, thatadministration
at all pointssensitiveto publicopinion. A bodyof thoroughly
servingduringgood behaviorwe musthave in
trainedofficials
any case: thatis a plainbusinessnecessity. But the apprehensionthatsucha bodywillbe anything
un-American
clearsaway
themomentit is asked,What is to constitutegood behavior?
For thatquestionobviouslycarriesits own answeron its face.
they
Steady,heartyallegianceto the policyof the government
servewill constitutegood behavior. That policy will have no
taintof officialism
aboutit. It willnotbe the creationof permanentofficials,
butofstatesmenwhoseresponsibility
to public
No. 2.]
THE STUDY
OF ADMINISTRATION.
2I 7
opinion will be direct and inevitable. Bureaucracy can exist
only where the whole service of the state is removed from the
commonpolitical life of the people, its chiefs as well as its rank
and file. Its motives,its objects, its policy,its standards,must
be bureaucratic. It would be difficultto point out any examples of impudentexclusivenessand arbitrarinesson the part of
officialsdoing service under a chief of departmentwho really
served the people, as all our chiefs of departments must be
made to do. It would be easy, on the other hand, to adduce
other instances like that of the influence of Stein in Prussia,
where the leadershipof one statesmanimbued with true public
bureaux into publicspirittransformedarrogantand perfunctory
spiritedinstrumentsof just government.
The ideal forus is a civil service cultured and self-sufficient
enough to act with sense and vigor,and yet so intimatelyconnected with the popular thought, by means of elections and
constant public counsel, as to find arbitrarinessor class spirit
quite out of the question.
III.
Having thus viewed in some sort the subject-matterand the
what are we to conclude
objects of this study of administration,
as to the methods best suited to it - the points of view most
advantageous forit ?
Governmentis so near us, so much a thing of our daily familiar handling, that we can with difficultysee the need of any
philosophical study of it, or the exact point of such study,
should it be undertaken. We have been on our feet too long to
studynow the art of walking. We are a practical people, made
so apt, so adept in self-government
by centuriesof experimental
drill that we are scarcely any longer capable of perceiving the
awkwardness of the particular system we may be using, just
because it is so easy for us to use any system. We do not
study the art of governing: we govern. But mere unschooled
genius foraffairswill not save us fromsad blundersin administration. Though democrats by long inheritanceand repeated
choice, we are still rathercrude democrats. Old as democracy
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POLITICAL
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[VOL. IL
is, its organizationon a basis of modernideas and conditions is
still an unaccomplishedwork. The democraticstate has yet to
be equipped forcarryingthose enormous burdens of administrationwhich the needs of this industrialand tradingage are so
fastaccumulating. Without comparativestudies in government
we cannot rid ourselves of the misconceptionthat administration stands upon an essentiallydifferentbasis in a democratic
state fromthat on which it stands in a non-democraticstate.
After such study we could grant democracy the sufficient
honor of ultimatelydeterminingby debate all essential questions affectingthe public weal, of basing all structuresof policy
upon the major will; but we would have found but one rule of
good administrationforall governmentsalike. So faras admin.
istrativefunctionsare concerned,all governmentshave a strong
structurallikeness; more than that, if they are to be uniformly
usefuland efficient,
theymust have a strongstructurallikeness.
A free man has the same bodily organs, the same executive
parts,as the slave, however differentmay be his motives, his
services, his energies. Monarchies and democracies, radically
different
as they are in otherrespects,have in realitymuch the
same business to look to.
It is abundantlysafe nowadays to insist upon this actual likeness of all governments,because these are days when abuses of
power are easily exposed and arrested, in countries like our
own, by a bold, alert, inquisitive,detective public thought and
a sturdypopular self-dependencesuch as never existed before.
We are slow to appreciate this; but it is easy to appreciate it.
Try to imagine personal governmentin the United States. It
is like tryingto imagine a national worshipof Zeus. Our imaginations are too modernforthe feat.
But, besides being safe, it is necessary to see that forall governmentsalike the legitimate ends of administrationare the
same, in ordernot to be frightenedat the idea of looking into
foreign systems of administrationfor instructionand suggestion; in order to get rid of the apprehension that we might
perchanceblindlyborrowsomethingincompatiblewith ourprinciples. That man is blindlyastraywho denounces attempts to
No. 2.]
THE STUDY
OF ADMINISTRATION.
2I9
transplantforeignsystems into this country. It is impossible:
they simplywould not grow here. But why should we not use
such parts of foreign contrivancesas we want, if they be in
any way serviceable? We are in no danger of using them in a
foreignway. We borrowed rice, but we do not eat it with
chopsticks. We borrowed our whole political language from
Enoland, but we leave the words "king" and "lords" out of
it. What did we ever originate,except the action of the federal
governmentupon individualsand some of the functionsof the
federalsupremecourt?
We can borrow the science of administrationwith safety
and profitif only we read all fundamentaldifferencesof condition into its essential tenets. We have only to filter it
through our constitutions,only to put it over a slow fire of
criticismand distil away its foreigngases.
I know that there is a sneaking fear in some conscientiously
patrioticminds that studies of European systemsmight signalize some foreign methods as better than some American
methods; and the fear is easily to be understood. But it would
scarcely be avowed in just any company.
It is the more necessaryto insist upon thus puttingaway all
prejudices against looking anywherein the world but at home
forsuggestionsin this study,because nowhereelse in the whole
fieldof politics,it would seem, can we make use of the historical, comparative method more safelythan in this province of
administration. Perhaps the more novel the formswe study
the better. We shall the sooner learn the peculiaritiesof our
own methods. We can never learn eitherour own weaknesses
or our own virtuesby comparingourselves with ourselves. We
are too used to the appearance and procedure of our own system to see its true significance. Perhaps even the English
systemis too much like our own to be used to the most profit
in illustration. It is best on the whole to get entirelyaway
fromour own atmosphere and to be most careful in examining
such systems as those of France and Germany. Seeing our
own institutionsthrough such media, we see ourselves as foreigners mightsee us were they to look at us withoutpreconcep-
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tions. Of ourselves, so long as we know only ourselves, we
know nothing.
Let it be noted that it is the distinction,already drawn,
between administrationand politics which makes the comparative method so safe in the field of administration. When we
study the administrativesystems of France and Germany,
knowing that we are not in search of political principles, we
need not care a peppercorn for the constitutionalor political
reasons which Frenchmen or Germans give fortheirpractices
when explaining them to us. If I see a murderous fellow
sharpeninga knifecleverly,I can borrowhis way of sharpening
the knifewithout borrowinghis probable intentionto commit
murderwith it; and so, if I see a monarchistdyed in the wool
managing a public bureau well, I can learn his business methods
withoutchanging one of my republican spots. lie may serve
his king; I will continueto serve the people; but I should like
to serve my sovereign as well as he serves his. Bv keeping
this distinctionin view,-that is, by studyingadministrationas
a means of putting our own politics into convenient practice,
as a means of makingwhat is democraticallypolitic towardsall
administrativelypossible towards each, - we are on perfectly
safe ground,and can learn without errorwhat foreignsystems
have to teach us. We thus devise an adjusting weightforour
comparative method of study. We can thus scrutinize the
anatomyof foreigngovernmentswithoutfear of gettingany of
their diseases into our veins; dissect alien systems without
apprehension of blood-poisoning.
Our own politics must be the touchstone for all theories.
The principleson which to base a science of administrationfor
America must be principleswhich have democratic policy very
much at heart. And, to suit American habit, all general
theories must, as theories, keep modestly in the background,
not in open argument only,but even in our own minds,- lest
opinionssatisfactoryonly to the standardsof the libraryshould
be dogmaticallyused, as if they must be quite as satisfactoryto
the standardsof practical politics as well. Doctrinaire devices
must be postponed to tested practices. Arrangementsnot only
No. 2.]
THE STUDY OF ADMINISTRATIONM.
221
santionedby conclusive experienceelsewherebut also congenial
to American habit must be preferredwithout hesitation to
theoretical perfection. In a word,steady,practical statesmanship must come first,closet doctrinesecond. The cosmopolitan
what-to-domust always be commanded by the American howto-do-it.
Our duty is, to supply the best possible life to a federal
organization,to systems within systems; to make town, city,
county,state, and federalgovernmentslive with a like strength
and an equally assured healthfulness,keeping each unquestionably its own master and yet making all interdependentand
co-operative,combining independencewith mutual helpfulness.
The task is great and important enough to attract the best
minds.
with federal selfThis interlacing of local self-government
governmentis quite a modern conception. It is not like the
arrangementsof imperial federationin Germany. There local
governmentis not yet,fully,local self-government.The bureaucrat is everywherebusy. His efficiencysprings out of esprit
de corps, out of care to make ingratiatingobeisance to the
authorityof a superior,or, at best, out of the soil of a sensitive
conscience. He serves, not the public, but an irresponsible
minister. The question for us is, how shall our series of
governmentswithin governments be so administeredthat it
shall always be to the interestof the public officerto serve, not
his superioralone but the communityalso, with the best efforts
of his talents and the soberest service of his conscience? How
shall such service be made to his commonest interest by contributingabundantlyto his sustenance, to his dearest interest
by furtheringhis ambition, and to his highest interest by
advancing his honorand establishinghis character? And how
shall this be done alike forthe local part and for the national
whole ?
If we solve this problem we shall again pilot the world.
There is a tendency- is there not ? - a tendencyas yet dim,
but already steadily impulsive and clearly destined to prevail,
towards, firstthe confederationof parts of empires like the
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POLITICAL
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British,and finallyof great states themselves. Instead of centralizationof power,there is to be wide union with tolerated
divisionsof prerogative. This is a tendencytowardsthe American type-of governmentsjoined with governments for the
pursuitof commonpurposes,in honoraryequalityand honorable
subordination. Like principles of civil libertyare everywhere
fostering like methods of government; and if comparative
studies of the ways and means of governmentshould enable
us to offersuggestions which will practicably combine openness and vigor in the administrationof such governmentswith
ready docility to all serious, well-sustained public criticism,
they will have approved themselves worthy to be ranked
among the highest and most fruitfulof the great departments
of political study. That they will issue in such suggestionsI
confidentlyhope.
WOODROW WILSON.