Federalist No. 70: Where Does the Public Service Begin and End?

• Date: 01 December 2011
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2011.02471.x
• Author: Janine R. Wedel
• Published date: 01 December 2011

Janine R. Wedel is a professor in the

School of Public Policy at George Mason

University and a senior research fellow at

the New America Foundation. Winner of the

prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Ideas

Improving World Order, her books include

Shadow Elite: How the World’s

New Power Brokers Undermine

Democracy, Government, and the

Free Market (2009) and Collision and

Collusion: The Strange Case of

Western Aid to Eastern Europe (2001).

E-mail: jwedel@gmu.edu

S118 Public Administration Review • December 2011 • Special Issue

Janine R. Wedel

George Mason University

Federalist No. 70 argues that presidents will rise above

factions through their power to assemble a government

composed of highly motivated, accountable of‌f‌i cers.  e

author confronts this assumption through a detailed

examination of the heavy use of contractors in today’s

administrative state. She documents the challenges

and dangers associated with the role of contractors to

execute the laws through broad mandates. An appendix

to Federalist No. 70 of‌f ers a series of tweets that would

introduce needed reforms in the hidden workforce of

contractors.

W ithout revolution, public debate, or even

much public awareness, a giant work-

force has invaded

Washington, D.C.—one that

can undermine the public and

national interest from the inside.

 is workforce consists of gov-

ernment contractors, specif‌i cally

those who perform “inherently

governmental” functions that

the government deems so inte-

gral to its work that only federal

employees should carry them

out (OMB 2003).1 Today, many

federal government functions

are conducted, and many public

priorities and decisions are driven, by private compa-

nies and players instead of government agencies and

of‌f‌i cials who are duty bound to answer to citizens and

sworn to uphold the national interest.

It is hard to imagine that the founding fathers would

have embraced this state of af‌f airs. Acting as a na-

tion—defending its security and providing for the

safety of its citizens—is a bedrock concept in some of

the Federalist Papers. For instance, John Jay writes in

Federalist No. 2,

As a nation we have made peace and war; as

a nation we have vanquished our common

enemies; as a nation we have formed alliances,

and made treaties, and entered into various

compacts and conventions with foreign states.

A strong sense of the value and blessings of

union induced the people, at a very early

period, to institute a federal government to

preserve and perpetuate it.

James Madison lays out a forceful case for the separa-

tion and distribution of government powers. He

cautions against “a tyrannical concentration of all

the powers of government in the same hands” and

outlines the importance of maintaining boundaries

among the divisions of government (see Federalist No.

47, 48, 51). I argue that the

considerable contracting out of

government functions is coun-

ter to the vision espoused by

these statesmen. Such contract-

ing out potentially erodes the

government’s ability to oper-

ate in the public and national

interest.2 It also creates the

conditions for the intertwining

of state and private power and

the concentration of power in

just a few hands—about which

Madison warned.

The Indispensable Hand

Once, government contractors primarily sold military

parts, prepared food, or printed government reports.

Today, contractors routinely perform “inherently

governmental” functions—activities that involve “the

exercise of sovereign government authority or the

establishment of procedures and processes related to

the oversight of monetary transactions or entitlements”

(OMB 2003).  e 20 “inherently governmental”

functions on the books include “command of military

forces, especially the leadership of military personnel

who are members of the combat, combat support, or

combat service support role”; “the conduct of foreign

relations and the determination of foreign policy”; “the

Federalist No. 70: Where Does the Public

Service Begin and End?

Today, many federal

government functions are

conducted, and many public

priorities and decisions are

driven, by private companies

and players instead of

government agencies and

of‌f‌i cials who are duty bound to

answer to citizens and sworn to

uphold the national interest.