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Saturday, December 22, 2012

Wilson's Vision on Public Administration


Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson is considered to be the father of Public Administration. His article ‘The study of Administration’ is considered to be the beginning of the public administration as a discipline. But, there have been many who have questioned Wilson’s paternity on Public Administration. Some believe that Wilson’s article is not the first literature on public administration. There have been a number of contributions before his work. In terms of content, Wilson’s article is not considered to be very rich. His article did not carry a full-fledged theory and did not carry an elaborate explanation relating to government in action. It is also said that his work is not a classic. Thus, many believe that Wilson has been wrongly addressed as the father of Public Administration. Irrespective of these criticisms, Wilson could be rightfully considered as the father of public administration. As it is argued that it is not the content of the Wilson’s article rather it is the impact of his article which makes him the father of the Public Administration. The previous works were not able to generate the kind of interest in the subject which was generated by Wilson’s article.
His article was essentially reformist in nature. He contributed his article while referring to the malfunctioning in American Administration under the Spoils system. This system was resulting into an inefficient and corrupt administration. It reduced the control of the President over the administration. His article came up in the background of this system and it said that efficiency in public administration requires a systematized study of government in action. Hence, it has been called reformist in nature. In this article, Wilson has tried to explain the late emergence of Public Administration as a discipline and has also explained that even though political science, an older discipline has ignored the most visible and obvious part of the state i.e. the government in action.
Political History of the State by Wilson
1.      The stage of Absolute Rule- This stage refers to the Monarchic system. In such a system, the government dealt with a very limited number of activities and the activities were very simple in nature. As a result of which, it was considered that anybody who was able bodied and sane can handle these activities and thereby, these activities do not require extra skill, expertise and knowledge. Thus, the political science kept its focus on the philosophical part of the state and ignored the practical part of the state i.e. the government in action.
2.      The struggle for constitutionalism and Popular Control- Constitutionalism refers to a political arrangement which is based on the idea of limited government and rule of law. During 1500s-1800s, there was a struggle to snatch the power away from the Monarchy and give it to the people. The focus was not on government in action but on why and how of popular control. Thus, the focus rested on the concepts like equality, liberty etc. Hence, again the political science restricted itself the study of the philosophical part of the state and not the government in action.
3.      The stage of Constitutionalism and Popular Control- When popular control was established, democracy became a reality. States became responsible states and people became citizens. Thereby, the role of the state expanded drastically. The state started undertaking large number of function and became very complex. Thus, the government in action became very wide and complex. This resulted into the need to focus on the government in action. Wilson says that it is only in the third phase that the need to study the government in action arose and since the third phase came up very late, it explains the late emergence of public administration as a discipline.
He also said that European administration has been very advanced in comparison to the American Administration. Europe was under the Monarchic system; thereby the governance systems were authoritarian in nature. These systems also faced struggle from the people who demanded popular control. These wanted to exercise effective control over the territory and population of their states in the least irritating manner possible. Thus, for this they focused on administration and the administration became more institutionalized and systematized.
He also said that America being a democracy, for everything there used to be elaborate debate and long discussions. Also, in USA, the responsibility for any kind of wrong doing or failure was attributed to the US constitution and its loopholes. Thus, Europe emphasized on administration and US emphasized on constitution. Wilson says that it is easy to frame a constitution than to run a constitution. The constitution becomes effective only when the values and ethos permeates into the administration. For the constitution to be effective, the administrators should be appropriately trained and adequately indoctrinated with the ideals of the constitution. Thus, a good constitution is merely a necessary condition and not a sufficient condition for a good society. Niebuhr says that liberty of an individual is incomparably protected by the administration.
Politics-Administration Dichotomy
Wilson says that Politics is separate from administration. While, politics is abstract, general and philosophical, administration is concrete, specific and technical. Administration is away from the hurry and strife of the politics, it is more business-like or it is less unbusiness-like. Bureaucracy to exist requires that the whole of the bureaucracy its Chief, rank and file should be removed from the common political line as its procedures, its functions and its standards are bureaucratic. He is highlighting for a separate and independent study of administration.
The latter views of Wilson indicated a Politics-Administration fusion. He said that Administration cannot exist and operate in the absence of politics. This difference in opinion might be because of his experiences during the latter days of his life. Many critics said that Wilson does not know his own mind.
While emphasizing on the American reform on administration, Wilson emphasized the importance of comparison with European administration because of which Wilson has been labelled as the ‘First Comparativist’. He said that European administration being advanced can serve as a reference point to improve and strengthen the American administration. This view of Wilson resulted into a fear among scholars because they believed that this initiative might result into imitation of European administration and this will rub the American administration of its unique values. Wilson responded by saying that comparison does not mean imitation, comparison helps in identifying similarities and dissimilarities, identify strengths and weaknesses. He subsequently said that this process of comparison helps in identification of useful elements resulting into improved operations. In the context of America, there have been a number of cases where the America borrowed from various cultures and countries without comprising its own values and ethos. For e.g. most of the political vocabulary of USA is primarily of European origin. But, terms like lord, king and queen have been left out because they did not match with the American culture and values. Metaphorically, one could learn the art of sharpening the knife though comparison without borrowing the intention of killing anybody. Anything that has to be adopted has to go through the democratic processes and constitutional values of USA such as dialogue, debate, public scrutiny, criticisms, legislative discourses etc. It is to be filtered through the constitution and put under the slow pyre of criticism only to distil away the foreign gases. This argument of Wilson has credited him with the title of “First Comparativist’. Yet, Wilson cannot be called as the initiator of the comparative approach in public administration. His article did not give any theory and did not elaborate on the concepts relating to public administration and government in action. He highlighted the importance of administration and need for introduction of public administration as a discipline.


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