The Founders, the Constitution, and Public Administration

by Spicer, Michael W.

• ISBN13: 9780878405824
• ISBN10: 0878405828
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-03-01
• Publisher: Georgetown Univ Pr

Summary

Viewed alternately as an obstacle to justice, an impediment to efficient government, and a tool by which some groups gain benefits and privileges at the expense of others, public administration threatens to become the whipping boy of American government. In this innovative look at the nation's bureaucracy, Michael W. Spicer revisits the values of the Constitution in order to reconcile the administrative state to its many critics. Drawing on political and social philosophy, Spicer argues that there is a fundamental philosophical conflict over the role of reason in society between writers in public administration and the designers of the American Constitution. This examination of worldviews illuminates the problem that American government faces in trying to ground a legitimate public administration in the Constitution. Defending and developing the Founders' idea that political power, whatever its source, must be checked, he critically examines existing ideas about the role of public administration in American governance and offers an alternative vision of public administration more in line with the Founders' constitutional design. This book will provide fresh insights for anyone interested in the role of public administration in the United States today.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: The Uneasy Status of Public Administration	p. 1
The Lack of Legitimacy of Public Administration	p. 2
Why Worry About Legitimacy?	p. 4
Public Administration and the U.S. Constitution	p. 5
Critics of the Constitution	p. 7
The Importance of Worldviews	p. 9
The Purpose of this Work	p. 10
The Relevance of this Work	p. 11
Rationalist and Anti-rationalist Worldviews	p. 13
The Rationalist Worldview	p. 14
Rationalist Thought	p. 15
The Anti-Rationalist Worldview	p. 20
Anti-Rationalist Thought	p. 21
The Worldviews of Public Administration and the Constitution	p. 26
Rationalism and Public Administration: The Early Writers	p. 26
Rationalism and Public Administration: Contemporary Writers	p. 30
Anti-Rationalism and the Founders	p. 34
On the Checking of Power: The Logic of a Constitution	p. 41
Interests	p. 41
Passions	p. 45
Unintended Exploitation	p. 46
Majority Rule	p. 48
The Use of Knowledge	p. 50
Visions of Public Administration	p. 54
"Discretionists" and "Instrumentalists"	p. 54
The Friedrich Argument	p. 55
The Finer Argument	p. 59
The Friedrich-Finer Debate and the Checking of Power	p. 62
An Anti-rationalist Vision of Public Administration	p. 67
Administrative Discretion and Checking Power	p. 67
Modern Writings on Administration as a Check on Power	p. 69
The Anglo-American Tradition of Administrative Discretion	p. 71
Checking Administrative Power: Rules and Procedures	p. 73
Checking Administrative Power: Citizen Participation	p. 76
Inertia, Inflexibility and Impersonality	p. 78
Constrained Discretion	p. 79
The Ethics of Administrative Discretion	p. 81
Anti-Rationalism and Ethics	p. 81
Personal Honesty	p. 82
Neutrality	p. 84
Utility	p. 86
Social Equity	p. 87
Common-Law Reasoning	p. 89
Consensus	p. 93
Summary and Conclusion	p. 97
The Contemporary Relevance of the Anti-Rationalist Vision	p. 98
Anti-Rationalism in the Administrative State	p. 100
Toward a New Perspective	p. 102
References	p. 105
Index	p. 111
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