Madison's Managers : Public Administration and the Constitution

by Bertelli, Anthony Michael; Lynn, Laurence E., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9780801882623
• ISBN10: 0801882621
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-03-03
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

Combining insights from traditional thought and practice and from contemporary political analysis, Madison's Managers presents a constitutional theory of public administration in the United States. Anthony Michael Bertelli and Laurence E. Lynn, Jr. contend that managerial responsibility in American government depends on official respect for the separation of powers and a commitment to judgment, balance, rationality, and accountability in managerial practice. The authors argue that public management -- administration by unelected officials of public agencies and activities based on authority delegated to them by policy makers -- derives from the principles of American constitutionalism, articulated most clearly by James Madison. Public management is, they argue, a constitutional institution necessary to successful governance under the separation of powers. To support their argument, Bertelli and Lynn combine two intellectual traditions often regarded as antagonistic: modern political economy, which regards public administration as controlled through bargaining among the separate powers and organized interests, and traditional public administration, which emphasizes the responsible implementation of policies established by legislatures and elected executives while respecting the procedural and substantive rights enforced by the courts. These literatures are mutually reinforcing, the authors argue, because both feature the role of constitutional principles in public management. Madison's Managers challenges public management scholars and professionals to recognize that the legitimacy and future of public administration depend on its constitutional foundations and their specific implications for managerial practice.

Author Biography

Anthony Michael Bertelli is an assistant professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia and Laurence E. Lynn Jr. holds the George H. W. Bush chair and is a professor of public affairs at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A & M University.

Table of Contents

Series Editors' Foreword	vii
Preface	ix
1 Separated We Stand	1	(14)
2 That Old-Time Religion	15	(29)
3 Orthodoxy and Its Discontents	44	(28)
4 Raising the Bar: Law and the Administrative Process	72	(31)
5 A Theory of Politically Responsive Bureaucrats	103	(29)
6 Managerial Responsibility: A Precept	132	(18)
7 Public Management: The Madisonian Solution	150	(17)
Notes	167	(28)
References	195	(22)
Index	217