Summary 39
Summary
Th eories of political control of the bureaucracy date to Woodrow Wilson’s rather
rigid description of a dichotomy, where he argued that politics should not meddle
in administration, and administration should not meddle in politics. Th is nor-
mative description held until the mid-1900s, when Waldo argued that all admin-
istrative acts were inherently political. At the same time, Simon also challenged
Wilson’s description, arguing that politics and administration were so entangled
that the two could not be unbundled.
Th e political features of administration gave rise to questions about control.
Th e concern is that if administration is inherently political, then it must be subject
to democratic inputs. Lowi (1979) argued for policy that created a Wilson-esque
distinction between administration and politics. Goodsell (1983), on the other
hand, argued for fl exibility and bureaucratic discretion in order to best meet the
preferences of citizens. Th ese discussions spawned literature on agency capture as
well as bureaucratic responsiveness.
Th e latest theory of political control of the bureaucracy is principal-agent the-
ory. Wood and Waterman (1994) begin with the assumption that the relationship
between elected leaders (the principals) and civil servants (the agents) is hierar-
chical and one best understood as a series of transactions. In other words, over
time the principals and agents may have diff erent levels of infl uence over each
other, depending on relative expertise, information, monitoring, and resources.
Aft er his retirement, Dwight Waldo was interviewed by two of his students,
Brack Brown and Richard J. Stillman Jr. Th e portion of this interview having to
do with the separation of powers and the politics-administration dichotomy is
particularly interesting, given that Waldo, perhaps more than anyone else, con-
tributed to the received wisdom that there is no such dichotomy:
Stillman: You’ve also indicated a similar diffi culty with our understanding of
the separation of powers. Why have advances been slow here as well? Is there
any way out of this quandary that you deem promising?Waldo: I suppose your next question will be, “What is the nature of reality?”
What can I say to this subject in a few minutes? Well, I off er a few observations
that I judge relevant.
First, the separation of powers is there—prominently and, for our purposes,
permanently. Th e complicated scheme of separating and sharing powers and
functions is built into the Constitution, and in more than two centuries the Con-
stitution has been built into our national life. We have no alternative but to work
with and/or around the tripartite separation.
Second, the politics-administration formula, perspective, approach,
dichotomy—pick your own noun—was an attempt on the part of pub-
lic administration to work with and/or around the separation of powers. It