The Case for Integration of Administrative Agencies
| Date | 01 May 1942 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271624222100107 |
| Author | John M. Gaus |
| Published date | 01 May 1942 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
33
The
Case
for
Integration
of
Administrative
Agencies
By
JOHN
M.
GAUS
THE
assumptions
which
underlie
the
Report
of
the
President’s
Commit-
tee
on
Administrative
Management
re-
flect
the
experience
of
those
engaged
in
governmental
organization
studies
in
this
country
in
the
past
quarter
of
a
century.
It
is
an
experience
stemming
earliest
from
the
Bureau
of
Municipal
Research
in
New
York
City,
whose
staff
members
and
students
soon
were
en-
gaged
upon
analyses
of
organization
and
procedure
in
the
national
and
state
gov-
ernments
as
well
as
in
many
cities,
and
from
the short
ballot
movement,
asso-
ciated
with
Richard
Childs
and
the
Na-
tional
Municipal
League,
and
reflected
in
the
city
manager
movement
and
pro-
posals
and
programs
in
many
states.
In
Illinois
the
work
of
a
group
of
research
workers
from
the
University
of
Illinois
was
implemented
by
the
leadership
of
Governor
Lowden;
in
Massachusetts
and
New
York,
the
influence
of
person-
nel
from
the
New
York
Bureau-Gu-
lick,
Lambie,
Robert
Moses,
for
example
-similarly
was
brought
to
bear
through
able
political
leadership,
most
notably
through
Alfred
E.
Smith
during
his
long
service
as
Governor
of
New
York.
More
recent
factors
will
shortly
be
noted.
We
may
concern
ourselves
at
the
moment
with
searching
out
the
core
of
theory,
of
assumptions,
that
repre-
sented
the best
judgment
of
this
able
group
concerning
the
general
scheme
of
organization
of
the
administrative
sys-
tem
of
the
particular
unit
of
govern-
ment
studied.
Surrounding
that
core,
it
should
be
noted,
was
a
more
general
political
situation
of
the
period-a
pe-
riod
which
saw
in
Theodore
Roosevelt’s
&dquo;New
Nationalism&dquo;
and
Wilson’s
&dquo;New
Freedom&dquo;
a
political
response
to
the
de-
mand
for
a
more
positive
role
of
govern-
ment
in
the
increasingly
interdependent
society
of
the
world
generally.
SOME
ASSUMPTIONS
STATED
The. assumptions
seem
to
be
these:
1.
Government
is
an
agency
estab-
lished
by
people
to
provide
services
which
facilitate
their
lives
in
some
way.
Thus,
impartial
adjudication
of
disputes
releases
energies
that
might
otherwise
be
wasted
in
fighting;
good
roads
widen
markets
and
ease
travel
generally.
Gov-
ernment
is
viewed
as
an
acting,
a
doing,
instrument.
Wilson
predicted
this
in
one
of
his
earliest
writings,
a
paper
on
&dquo;The
Study
of
Administration,&dquo;
as
the
emphasis
which
was
to
be
placed
upon
government
in
twentieth-century
America.
2.
A
policy
for
one
of
these
func-
tions
of
government
should
be
respon-
sibly
advanced
by
the
head
of
a
de-
partment
charged
with
that
function;
it
should
represent
the
experience
and
knowledge
of
all
agencies
charged
with
any
significant
power
and
responsibility
relating
to
that
function,
so
that
there
might
be
the
most
economical
and
effi-
cient
use
of
the
instruments
of
govern-
ment.
The
words
&dquo;economy
and
effi-
ciency&dquo;
were
widely
used
in
the
early
movement,
and
appeals
were
made
to
the
supposed
ideal
of
business
admin-
istration
and
business
practice
generally,
and
to
the
neat
and
compact
form
of
organization
that
was
ascribed
to
the
organization
of
the
National
Govern-
ment.
In
fact,
the short
ballot
ad-
vocates
at
the
Albany
constitutional
convention
in
1915
were
dubbed
the
&dquo;Federal
crowd&dquo;
partly
for
this
reason.
3.
Just
as
one
of
the
major
influences
that
was
behind
the
civil
service
reform
movement
was
the
political
and
moral
objective
of
purifying
the
system
of
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