Question

In 1885 Woodrow Wilson, having not yet completed his doctoral program at Johns Hopkins University, began his teaching career at the newly founded Bryn Mawr College for Women. While reportedly a lecturer of genius, he resented having to teach women. As he told an associate, such an activity “relaxes one’s mental muscle.” In 1887 he summed up his life by saying, “Thirty-one years old and nothing done!” In retrospect, Wilson seems to have been like many other ambitious academics seemingly stuck in a post that did not do justice to talent. And he chose as the way out the now traditional road to high academic fame, fortune, and position: he wrote and published and was saved! American public administration as a field of study traditionally traces its origin to an 1887 Political Science Quarterly article by this frustrated young academic. In “The Study of Administration,” Wilson attempted nothing less than to refocus the newly emerging field of political science. Rather than be concerned with the “lasting maxims of political wisdom,” he argued that political science should concentrate on the more generally neglected details of how governments are administered. This was necessary because “it is getting harder to run a constitution than to frame one.” Wilson wanted the study of public administration to focus not only on the problems of personnel management, as many other reformers of the time had advocated, but also on organization and management in general. The reform movement of the time had an agenda that did not go beyond the abolition of the spoils system and the installation of a merit system. Wilson regarded civil service reform “as but a prelude to a fuller administrative reform.” He sought to push the concerns of public administration into investigations of the “organization and methods of our government offices” with a view toward determining “first, what government can properly and successfully do, and secondly, how it can do these proper things with the utmost possible efficiency and at the least possible cost either of money or energy” (Wilson, 1887 in Classics of Public Administration, 2012, p. 16). He was concerned with overall organizational efficiency and economy—that is, productivity in its most simplistic formulation. What could be more current—then or now? In his essay, Wilson also proclaimed the existence of a major distinction between politics and administration. This was a common and necessary political tactic of the reform movement because arguments that public appointments should be based on fitness and merit, rather than partisanship, necessarily had to assert that “politics” was out of place in public service. As Wilson said, “Although politics sets the tasks for administration, it should not be suffered to manipulate its offices.” In reinforcing what became known as the “politics–administration dichotomy,” Wilson was really referring to “partisan” politics. While this subtlety was lost on many, Wilson’s main themes—that public administration should be premised on a science of management and separate from traditional politics—fell on fertile intellectual ground. The ideas of this then obscure professor eventually became the dogma of academic public administration. And what happened to the young Bryn Mawr professor who plaintively wrote in 1888, “I have for a long time been hungry for a class of men”? Shortly thereafter, he took up an appointment at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. From there he went to Princeton, made good, and became president of that university. In later life he found a job in Washington. But if Wilson had not found that job in Washington, had not become president, his now seminal article would have continued to enjoy the obscurity its verbosity warrants. The article’s significant influence came only after World War II—more than half a century after it was published. Administrative historian Paul van Riper found that none of the early public administration scholars, Wilson’s contemporaries, cited the article in their otherwise heavily referenced works. “In reality, any connection between Wilson’s essay and the later development of the discipline is pure fantasy! An examination of major political and social science works of the period between 1890 and World War I shows no citation whatever of the essay” (Van Riper, 1983, p. 477). So how did it get rediscovered and become required reading for generations of students? According to a historical analysis by Daniel W. Martin, “The simple answer . . . is the glowing reprint of Wilson’s article in the December 1941 Political Science Quarterly. It was a masterwork of public relations, complete with a photostatic copy of Wilson’s tentative letter of submission” (Martin, 1988). Thereafter, Wilson’s essay, cited only modestly in the interwar period, grew to its current influence.

Read the short case study above and answer the questions below.

1) Briefly describe Woodrow Wilson’s early career and how it influenced his theories on public administration.

2) Then explain Woodrow Wilson’s views on the definition and scope of activities of public administration. How did he see public administration best utilizing tools, techniques, and theories from business administration?

3) Evaluate Woodrow Wilson’s major contributions to the field of public administration. To what extent were concepts like the “politics administration dichotomy” and “efficiency and economy” in administration significant at the time? To what extent are they still relevant today?

Answer 1

1. Briefly describe Woodrow Wilson’s early career and how it influenced his theories on public administration.

Ans. Woodrow Wilson started his teaching career at Bryn Mawr College for Women while still completing his doctorate from John Hopkins University. While being not much interested in his role, as it did not do justice to his talent. To save himself, he wrote and published the essay "The study of administration" where he focused and wrote upon how governments are administered. It was a new thought that challenged the status-quo of political wisdom then. His thoughts in public administration were one of the breakthroughs after World War II, which made him a father of public administration.

2. Then explain Woodrow Wilson’s views on the definition and scope of activities of public administration. How did he see public administration best-utilizing tools, techniques, and theories from business administration?

Ans. Mr. Wilson focused on the neglected details of administration. In his views, it should not just be limited to personnel management but should include organization and management in general. He was of the view that the system must be efficient and should run at the least possible money or energy. He mentioned that administration should be premised on the science of management, and separate from the politics. Thus, his idea of economy and efficiency, politics administration dichotomy, and using management science for public administration as a tool became his popular points. He also held a view, that implementing the constitution was difficult than framing it.

3. Evaluate Woodrow Wilson’s major contributions to the field of public administration. To what extent were concepts like the “politics administration dichotomy” and “efficiency and economy” in administration significant at the time? To what extent are they still relevant today?

Ans. Woodrow Wilson presented new thoughts that were not pondered upon previously. Like the distinction between public administration and politics. Reform should not just be limited to personnel management and a merit-based system. Also, the efficiency and economy, where the government must first determine what it can do and then how to do that efficiently.

The concepts did not get much light in the 1880s and received recognition only after World War II. Although, it was significant that time too, but were not acknowledged in the same manner, as done today. It was because the government was handling almost everything in which it may not have much efficiency. Also, the two systems of administration and politics were seen as one

In the present time, it can be seen in practice as the government has given away a lot of departments and work, that cannot be run efficiently. There is an increasing inclusion of the private sector to take upon work, that was once only handled by the government.

Also, the bureaucracy is run like a business, where ideas of professionalism, merit-based and should have a nonpolitical system, which can be seen in the practice in many nations.