Five Theo
Dan R. Finley
Helms School of Government, Liberty University
PADM 475 Advanced Public Administration (B01)
Professor Jennifer Holmquist
September 15, 2023
The Two Functions of Government
Public administration is characterized as a political effort to provide for stability within the
socio-economic function of the governed state. The landscape of how the American political
institution and administration of government has been everchanging from its creation in the late
eighteenth century. Administrative organizations are political institutions, but not all political
institutions are administrative organizations (Cook, 2018). It is important to gain an
understanding of how these two functions have operated throughout the two centuries of its
existence. Modern administration presented a number of dilemmas involving political and
administrative functions that had now supplanted the traditional concern with the separation of
powers among the various branches of government (Shafritz & Hyde, 2018, p. 9).
The modern administration would go through a drastic change in the latter part of the
nineteenth century. Woodrow Wilson submitted an article to Political Science Quarterly calling
for the academic thinkers to begin a study of public administration. Wilson believed that
administration was eminently a science (Sokoh, 2020). This was an obvious assertion based on a
link Wilson made between politics and administration. Wilson rightly critiqued that there had
been no thorough study of the link and that there was no benchmark set to evaluate the
administration.
This era of progressive thinking brought Republican and Democratic representatives together
to solve some of the current issues. Progressive politicians looked for solutions to problems with
child labor laws, women’s suffrage, unionization, public health services, Black civil rights,
economic regulation and taxes, immigration restriction, segregation, and the prohibition of
alcohol (Politics, 2023). There were several new legislative acts and policies that were formed as
a result of the progressive movement. Factories and large-scale businesses took note and began
instituting reform within their private companies.
Political figures and activists of the day had a profound impact on the development of public
administration. They recognized that there were elements of administration that needed to be
studied and understood. This would allow for the betterment of the American people in their
everyday lives. Modern public administration would be founded on a scope that was without
precedent in the United States’ brief experience. The study of public administration would be
about an entire major sector of what would grow to be the largest and most influential economy
in the twentieth century (Shafritz & Hyde, 2018, p. 12).
The next phase of the change in how politics and administration functioned took place after
the conclusion of World War I. The United States was changing from a rural agricultural society
to an urban industrial nation (Ibid, p. 13). This change brough on the emergence of the
bureaucratic state. Bureaucracy has a distinctive culture that aids in shaping the behavior of
bureaucrats (Gormley, 2016). Bureaucracies are seen as poorly run lack competence to handle
the weight of administration. The pressure exerted by the bureaucracy inadvertently works
toward a conformist mentality where there is no public input.
Several classical and neoclassical approaches to organizational theory and behavior began to
emerge during the middle of the twentieth century. Each position showed some merit and
organizations began adopting them in the effort to improve worker output. These
implementations would prove effective and be evaluated periodically to ensure continued
success. All of this work would be revisited in the 1960s and 1970s. The Civil Rights movement
of the 1960s and the Vietnam War, and later most directly the Watergate scandal, would sorely
test public confidence in government, elected officials, and government bureaucrats (Shafritz &
Hyde, 2018, p. 91).
The election of Ronald Reagan would bring another change to the politics and administration
dichotomy. A new path was charted at the federal level based on more conservative philosophies
of less government and less regulation, new federalism, strength through defense, supply-side
economics, and the realignment of public-sector and private-sector roles through privatization
(Ibid, p. 357). Reagan took what the conservatives were attempting to do during the post-WWII
era and worked to curtail government programs and reset the country’s priorities. He promoted
reducing the tax burden and allowing local governments and organizations to participate in
welfare programs (Finley, 2023).
Each change in the way the two functions of government have been received with mixed
reactions. It is safe to assume that any future changes will result in a similar response. Public
administrations may not agree on how best to run the government, but we can be assured that
God is in control and His ways are better (Christian Standard Bible, 2020, Isaiah 55:8-9). God’s
thinking is different than ours when it comes to what is best for us. His ways are so much higher
and better than ours. We can take a pause and refocus on what really matters and let God do His
will in our lives and our nation.
References
Christian Standard Bible. (2020). Nashville: B&H Publishing Group. (Original work published
2017).
Cook, B. J. (2018). Old and New: Politics and Administration. Administration & Society, 50(6),
751–751. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399718781355.
Finley, Dan. (2023). Case Study #1. submitted works in PADM 475. Liberty University.
Gormley, Bill. (2015). James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why
They Do It. The Oxford Handbook of Classics in Public Policy and Administration,
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199646135.013.2, accessed September 15, 2023.
Shafritz, Jay & Hyde, Albert (2018). Classics of Public Administration. Boston: Cengage
Learning.
Sokoh, G.C. (2020). Thomas Woodrow Wilson’s Contributions to Administrative Thought and
Its Critique. Journal of Danubian Studies and Research, 10(1). https://dj.univ-
danubius.ro/index.php/JDSR/article/view/568, accessed September 15, 2023.
Woodrow Wilson House. (2023). Progressive Era Politics.
https://woodrowwilsonhouse.org/wilson-topics/woodrow-wilson-domestic-policy,
accessed September 15, 2023.
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