Partisan Politics and Administrative Agencies
| Published date | 01 May 1942 |
| Date | 01 May 1942 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000271624222100106 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
29
Partisan
Politics
and
Administrative
Agencies
By
E. E.
SCHATTSCHNEIDER
HE
term
&dquo;partisan
politics&dquo;
as
used
T in
the
title
of
this
article
implies
that
politics
is
something
pernicious,
from
which
&dquo;good&dquo;
administrative
agen-
cies
ought
to
be
insulated.
On
the
face
of
things
this
attitude
is
remarkable,
because
the
object
of
all
politics,
all
pol-
icy,
all
public
discussion
of
policy,
all
elections,
and
democracy
itself
is
ulti-
mately
to
control
administration.
The
whole
governmental
process
culminates
in
a
series
of
administrative
acts.
If
politics
is
properly
concerned
with
the
origin
of
public
policy,
it
must
also
con-
cern
itself
with
the
results
of
policy;
it is
logical
to
follow
the
process
through
to
its
conclusion.
In
this
sense
politics
permeates
administration.
In
a
democ-
racy
the
political
parties
(as
mobilizers
of
majorities)
have
the
most
legitimate
imaginable
reasons
for
concerning
them-
selves
with
the
grand
strategy
of
gov-
ernment,
i.e.,
the
policies
administered
by
the
governmental
agencies.
If
policy
is
anything
at
all,
it
is
a
guide
to
ad-
ministration
and
a
method
of
controlling
administration.
How
does
it
happen
that
thoughtful
people
have
come
to
feel
that
politics
and
administration
ought
to
be
divorced?
LACK
OF
PARTY
COHESION
To
understand
what
is
meant
by
the
expression
&dquo;partisan
politics,&dquo;
it
is
nec-
essary
first
to
make
some
observations
concerning
the
nature
of
American
par-
ties,
for
it
is
easy
to
assume
the
exist-
ence
of
a
partisan
influence
in
govern-
ment
which
the
parties,
in
fact,
are
wholly
incapable
of
exerting.
What
sort
of
control
could
the
Amerian
parties
in
any
case
exercise
over
the
administrative
establishment?
The
truth
of
the
matter
is
that
it
is
not
very
easy
to
detect
and
describe
the
influence
of
the
parties
on
the
administrative
agencies
if
we
except
one
important
matter,
namely,
the
pa-
tronage
system.
The
control
of
the
parties
over
the
fundamental
policy
of
the
government
is
an
elusive
subject
because
the
Ameri-
can
major
party
is
not
an
effective
policy-making
institution.
Doubtless,
the
most
important
instrument
for
the
formulation
of
public
policy
is
legis-
lation,
but
the
influence
of
the
parties
on
legislation
is
not
overwhelming
and
decisive.
Any
analysis
of
the
votes
in
Congress
will
demonstrate
immediately
that
the
parties
are
not
generally
able
to
hold
their
lines
in
Congress
on
contro-
versial
issues
in
legislation;
they
divide
and
form
combinations
in
both
houses
which
more
often
than
not
simply
ignore
party
lines.
Public
policy
as
expressed
in
legislation
is
developed
across
party
lines
and
in
spite
of
party
divisions
more
often
than
it
evolves
as
a
conse-
quence
of
party
conflict.
This
is
the
most
important
single
fact
concerning
the
nature
of
the
American
party
system,
and
must
therefore
be
the
starting
point
of
all
calculations
con-
cerning
party
politics.
It
is
all
the
more
necessary
to
grasp
this
crucial
fact
firm-
ly
because
the
parties
have
been
extra-
ordinarily
successful
in
concealing
their
condition
from
the
public.
What
has
been
said
about
partisan
influence
in
legislation
applies
with
equal
force
to
all
other
Congressional
instruments
for
the
formulation
of
public
policy,
i.e.,
the
budget,
debate,
congressional
investiga-
tions,
and
so
forth.
The
parties
produce
relatively
insig-
nificant
effects
on
public policy
because
they
rarely
seem
to
be
sufficiently
in-
terested
in
policies
to
impose
them
on
the
government.
The
instruments
and
institutions
for
the
creation
of
party
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