Summary
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856 – 1924) was the 28th President of the United States of
America, 1913- 1921. He graduated from Princeton University, attended law school at the
University of Virginia, and received his PH.D. in political science from John Hopkins University.
He taught at Bryn Mawr College and Wesleyan College before being hired by Princeton. He
developed a reputation for his educational reform policies.
Views of Public Administration
Wilson's 1887 article "The Study of Administration" laid the groundwork for the study of
Public Administration today. He argued that a government must understand its powers and use
them in the most efficient and cost-effective way. He also argued that Politics and Public
Administration are two different things, and that Public Administration is the effectiveness of the
country's policies as determined by the politicians elected.
Wilson studied several different country's administrations and noticed that the US would
have to operate differently due to the resources and customs of our increasingly capitalistic
society. He believed that people must hold government employees to a higher standard and that
hiring employees based on their merit and skills could ensure the success of an administration.
The Study of Administration provided a solid foundation for the study of Public
Administration, but it was not that popular when it was first written. Without Wilson's ideas, the
government would not be efficient and would lack the structure of how it works today.
References
“The Study of Administration” by Woodrow Wilson (1887). (n.d.). Ballotpedia
https://ballotpedia.org/%22The_Study_of_Administration%22_by_Woodrow_Wilson_(1887)
