Politics and the administration 195interests, or the interests of their ‘clients’, conflict, and even within a single
department such conflicts may arise and become very sharp indeed. Thus the
idea that the administrative agencies of government can be isolated from
political problems is a chimera, and in America there are a number of social
and political factors that increase the extent to which the officials of the gov-
ernment may become involved in political issues.
Nevertheless the demand for efficiency in government is a continuing and
powerful force for reform, and it must be admitted that, up to a point, the
demand that administration should be taken out of politics has improved the
quality and the performance of the federal bureaucracy. But how far should
it be taken? If the administrative machine is too insulated from the political
battle might it not become out of touch with the needs and aspirations of
the people? In a democracy should not the civil service be representative of,
and responsive to, all the differing interests and points of view that make up
the society? And if the president is to get the administration’s policies effec-
tively translated into actions, is it not essential that those who actually direct
this work should be fired with enthusiasm for them? This tension between
technical efficiency and democracy can be seen throughout the working of
the American governmental machine, and the exact balance that has been
struck is the subject of the present chapter.
The structure of the administration
The major characteristics of the American political system, which we have
seen working their way through every aspect of the structure, have their im-
pact also upon the organisation and operation of the executive branch of gov-
ernment. Indeed, rather than presenting a picture of a unified, hierarchical,
highly coordinated administrative machine, the American administration is
decentralised, fragmented, some might say almost anarchic. The separation
of powers as it has evolved in its American version, far from creating an ad-
ministrative instrument subservient to the presidential will, has in practice
given to Congress the power, and the inclination, to interfere in the day-
to-day working of the administration. The structure of the federal system,
necessitating as it does that the federal administration must work with state
and local officials across the continent, subjects the operation of the machin-
ery of the federal government to a great variety of pressures which are felt
both by the bulk of civil servants, most of whom work outside Washington,
and by those executives who have to cope with Senators and Congressmen, as
well as the governors and state and local politicians who flock to the capital to
put their views to the president and the administration. In fact, the pluralism
of American politics is amply reflected in the structure and practice of the
administration. The administrative apparatus of the federal government is
divided up into three broad categories: the executive departments and agen-
cies, the independent agencies, and government corporations.