Administrators and democracy

BUREAUCRACY AND SELF-GOVERNMENT - Reconsidering the Role of Public Administration in American Politics: Brian J.Cook; Frank Brothers and Co., 4765A, Ansari Road, 21, Daryaganj, New Delhi- 110002.

Rs. 134.90.

THE WORD ``administration'' fails to appear anywhere in the U.S. Constitution. Yet, it has come to stay. What is more, administrative power has grown in the face of every effort to domesticate it. Neutrality and anonymity have been traditionally hailed as the cardinal virtues of civil service. It is in defining ``neutrality'' that difficulties arise.

The author tries to define it in the context of two conflicting concepts, one treating public administration as a mere instrument and the other assigning a constitutive role to it.

Progressive Presidents like Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and William Taft would prefer a close link between the Presidency and public administration to give shape, substance and guidance to the inevitable democratic tide. Roosevelt wanted the bureaucracy to be ``responsive to the needs of the majority'' and would vest the Presidency with ``authority over its domain.''

Over the years, tasks of the government have grown dramatically more extensive and complex, forcing elected officials both to rely on administrators for advice in policy making and to allow them considerable discretion in policy implementation. At the same time, expanded regulation and control have also been suggested by successive reformers. The spoils system in recruitment and election of public officials by some states have rendered the entire debate of civil service neutrality somewhat redundant.

Woodrow Wilson acknowledged that the science of administration developed in Europe and would borrow its ``administrative methods.'' But borrowed methods had to be grafted onto new roots ``adapted to a complex and multi-form state and made to fit highly decentralised forms of government''. Wilson regarded the executive as a ``little more than an instrument''. ``The gauge of excellence is not the law under which the officers act, but the conscience and intelligence with which they apply it.''

The scholarly treatment concludes with a plea for ``constitutionally anchored responsible discretion'' making the reader wonder whether this is not stressing the obvious. After all, governments in all democracies are run by elected officials, who contest on the basis of a manifesto.

And the civil service just carries out the policy within the framework of the respective Constitution. Whether the executive is instrumental or constitutive, it has enormous potential to affect the reputation of the rulers either way and, to this extent, it has to be watched carefully.

Any practical President would concentrate on using this expert tool in the most beneficial manner and would not engage in raising scholarly dust over academic and hypothetical issues.

A.S.PADMANABHAN

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