LOOKING AT THE POLITICS–ADMINISTRATION DICHOTOMY FROM THE OTHER DIRECTION: PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION BY A STATE SENATOR

Abstract

The politics–administration dichotomy has been a durable concept in political science and public administration. Many effective critiques of the doctrine, first suggested by Woodrow Wilson in 1887, have not diminished the longevity of the approach it suggests for policy making in government. Yet, most of the literature has been written from the point of view of either academics or public administration practitioners. Little has been presented from the point of the view of the other participants in the dichotomy, the elected officials. Based on participant observation in the Wisconsin Legislature from 1977 to 1989, the author reviews how the politicians with whom he served behaved regarding their relations with administrators. He suggests that elected officials make decisions based on political rationality rather than a comprehensive norm defining their relationship with administrators. The political decision making he observed implicitly viewed administrators as subordinate to politicians rather than equal partners, roughly comparable to the discredited original meaning of the politics–administration dichotomy.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 33rd annual meeting of the Wisconsin Political Science Association, Nov. 6, 1998 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the 60th annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration, Apr. 10–13, 1999, in Orlando, Florida. My thanks to University of Wisconsin professors Susan Kelly, Marcus Ethridge, and Dennis Dresang for commenting on earlier drafts.