Wilson’s View on Politics and Administration Table 1 Politics and (public administration) Dichotomy -Dividing Politics and

July 31, 2010 by blessan Administration

Politics Administration

Deals with the “expression of the will of Deals with the “Execution of the
the people “. will of the people”.

Woodrow Wilson is regard as the founder or father of study of public

administration. His title rests on his seminal essay entitled “The Study of
public administration” which was published in the Political Science quarterly
in 1887. Wilson wrote his essay, “The Study of Public Administration” in the
era of the Progressive movement which covered the last two decades of the
nineteenth Century. In the United States, this movement was developed in Deals with Politicians Deals with Civil Servants
response to increasing Urbanization, immigration, the seeming loss of
traditional values, Corruption, etc. There was maladministration due to
rampant political corruption and the Prevalence of the “spoils system”
introduced by President Andrew Jackson. Under this system only the loyal
political supporters of the Party’s Victorium at the Polls were appointed to
One becomes Politician by his
administrative posts As a consequence less qualified and sometimes popularity ,either through positive or
Unqualified people entered the Public service and contributed to the One becomes Civil servants by
negative popularity
increasing inefficiency of public administration. his intelligence
Positive Popularity , e.g., Sonia Gandhi
Influenced by the progressive movement Woodrow Wilson was also Negative Popularity e.g. Poolan Devi
convinced that there was a need to reform the government and the reforms
should be in the field of public administration so as to make it more efficient.
It was in this context of prevalent maladministration and the consequent
administrative reforms that Wilson emphasized in his essay, the development One becomes civil servant
of the science of public administration as the appropriate cure for corrupt One becomes Politics through election
through selection
and inefficient administrative system. This vision of Wilson also marked the
emergence of public administration as a separate and independent field of
Study.

Wilson’s View on Politics and Adm inistration

Woodrow Wilson is usually regarded as the Originator Of the doctrine of
politics- administration dichotomy. In his essay Wilson divided government Prior training is not given to politician Civil servants are professionals
into two separate spheres of politics and administration. In his opinion,
politics is dealt with questions of policy formulation; administration is dealt
with carrying them out. He defined public administration as “detailed and
systematic execution of public law”.

Wilson characterized public administration as a field of business .He Said,

“the field of administration is a field of business….. Removed from the hurry Power is the Centre of study in politics Running administration
and strife of politics” He Stated that administration lies outside the proper i.e , process of capturing and retaining successfully is the central focus
sphere of politics. Administrative questions are not political questions. power here
Although politics sets the tasks for, it should not be suffered to manipulate its
offices”. He further observed that “public administration is a Part of political
life only as the methods of counting house are a Part of the life of the society;
only as machinery is part of a manufactured product”. To Wilson, politics is
the special Province of the statesman and administration that of the technical
official. Wilson Wanted that administrators should not involve themselves in
the political process, Thus Wilson tried to establish the distinction between
politics and administration.

By expounding the politics –Administration dichotomy theory, Wilson urged

strongly for the creation of a technically competent and politically neutral
administrative system for a democracy. It should be separate from the political
system, although it is under democratic control. Wilson believed that if public
administration could be separated from the practical politics and the
influences of the spoils system prevailed at that time in the USA, it might
become more business-like and develop on scientific lines in its own right.
Thus his goal was to call attention to the need for efficient administration
and to keep it out of Partisan Politics. Wilson saw the Study Of public
administration as the latest fruit of that Study of science of politics which was
begun some two thousand two hundred Years ago. The foundations of public
administration “are those deep and permanent principles of politics”. Thus
for Wilson, it is said, the Study of public administration, derived from the
Study of politics, was to be distinguished from it, but never divorced from its
“maxims” and “truths”. To Wilson, public administration was much more
than technical detail and it was to be conducted in a political context .Thus
he treated “politics and public administration as two sides of a coin”.