Book Reviews and Notices : The Administrative State: A Study of the Political Theory of American Public Administration. By DWIGHT WALDO. (New York: The Ronald Press. 1948. Pp. viii, 227. $3.25.)

• Author: G. Homer Durham
• Published date: 01 June 1948
• Date: 01 June 1948
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591294800100210
• Subject Matter: Articles

186

BOOK

REVIEWS

AND

NOTICES*

*In

view

of

the

prevailing

vacation

period

this

column

has

been

restricted

in

size.

A

considerable

number

of

book

reviews

will

appear

in

the

September

issue

of

the

Quarterly.

THE

MANAGING

EDITOR.

The

Administrative

State:

A

Study

of

the

Political

Theory

of

American

Public

Administration.

By

DWIGHT

WALDO.

(New

York:

The

Ronald

Press.

1948.

Pp.

viii,

227.

$3.25.)

Originally

undertaken

as

a

Ph.D.

requirement

at

Yale,

this

work

sug-

gests

a

continuous

&dquo;book

review&dquo;

of

the

writings

(representative

by

the

de-

clared

intent

of

their

authors)

of

American

public

administration

since

the

time

of

Woodrow

Wilson.

The

apparent

result,

however,

belies

the

prodigious

effort

of

Professor

Waldo

to

&dquo;review

and

analyze

the

theoretical

element

in

administrative

writing,&dquo;

and

&dquo;to

present

the

development

of

the

public

ad-

ministration

movement

as

a

chapter

in

the

history

of

American

political

thought.&dquo;

One

may

report

more

success

in

achieving

the

former

than

the

latter

objective,

with

the

early

chapters

of

the

work

somewhat

indebted

to

Ralph

H.

Gabriel’s

The

Course

of

American

Democratic

Thought

( 1940) .

At

the

same

time,

questions

of

the

good

life,

who

should

rule,

the

criteria

of

action

and

the

assumptions

underlying

economy

and

efficiency,

must

henceforth

confront

workers

in

the

field

as

a

result

of

this

study.

Possible

omissions

in

the

literature

evaluated

by

the

author

are

the

recent

voluminous

field

studies,

investigations

and

reports

of

the

several

organizations,

and

the

many

political

scientists

who

produce

on-the-ground

recommendations

for

state

and

local

governments.

What

assumptions

underly

P.A.S.

reports,

departmental

investigations,

planning

surveys,

charter

revisions

and

the

like

when

latter-day

practitioners

go

to

work?

Do

implicit

and

explicit

attitudes

express

more

or

less

than

when

these

practitioners

let

themselves

go

at

theoretical

writing?

Does

practical

contact

with

the

body

politic

produce

modified

hypotheses,

as

when

the

medical

profession

put

aside

books

and

approached

the

body

human?

Such

a

task

is

beyond

the

scope

of

The

Administrative

State

but

suggests

the

probable

influence

this

study

might

have.

Professor

Waldo

finds

a

core

of

orthodoxy

based

on

(1)

the

postulates

that

&dquo;true

democracy&dquo;

and

&dquo;true

efficiency&dquo;

are

synonomous

or

reconcilable,

and

on

(2)

the

politics-administration

assumption

that

the

execution

of

policy

&dquo;is

or

can

be

a

science.&dquo;

At

the

same

time

a

&dquo;considerable

measure

of

doubt&dquo;

concerning

these

doctrines

is

found

and

reported.

The

volume

is

enlivened

by

generous

use

of

capitalization

such

as

&dquo;the

New

Democracy,&dquo;

&dquo;the

Early

Giants,&dquo;

&dquo;the

Golden

Rule,&dquo;

&dquo;Admin-