Politics and the administration 207Administration and the federal system
The interrelationships between politics and administration are not, however,
restricted to the internal operations of the federal government; for, as we
have seen in every other sphere of the American political system, the fact of
federalism introduces another dimension, the effect of state and local poli-
tics on the national government. It is necessary to realise at this point that,
just as the politics of national and local affairs are inextricably interwoven, so
also the administration of American government is a vast complex of nation-
al, state and local programmes, most of which involve more than one level of
government. Only in a very few areas do federal programmes have no impli-
cations for the states and localities, for in many fields of domestic policy Con-
gress has deliberately chosen to administer federal programmes through,
and in cooperation with, state and local authorities. In many areas of social
policy the federal government provides money in the form of grants-in-aid,
sets standards for the states to comply with, and supervises the administra-
tion, but the states and localities carry out the programmes and also provide
money from their own resources. Even when no cooperative programme is in
operation, there is usually a state programme running alongside the federal
one, so that the two levels of government may be in competition with each
other, or may complement each other.
This network of administrative relationships necessitates that federal,
state and local officials will constantly be coming into contact with each
other, and the way in which government programmes are carried out will
depend very much on the quality of the cooperation between them. However,
it is important to emphasise the word ‘cooperation’. Although the federal
government may have provided most of the money for a programme, and
have laid down quite precise conditions about the way in which it should be
carried out, it cannot give orders to state and local governments. Its major
sanction is the withdrawal of funds, and this is sometimes done. But this type
of action is politically hazardous for federal administrators to adopt. The
state officials can call upon political support from their superiors in the state
government; Congressmen and Senators can be mobilised to put pressure
on the federal department concerned; and as a last resort Congress can, and
sometimes does, act to reverse the decisions of federal officials taken under
legislation in which Congress itself had previously acquiesced. Thus adminis-
trative relationships between the levels of government are very political, and
sometimes highly sensitive.
The problems that face the federal administration in dealing with state
and local authorities are intensified by the very nature of state and local
administration. In the first place, the structure of most state administrations
is even more fragmented than that of the federal government itself. A gov-
ernor is usually much less in control of the state’s administrative machinery
than the president is of the federal machine. The former has to contend with
senior members of his administration who are separately elected by the peo-
ple, and who may not share his views on policy. State legislatures have been