The Complementarity View: Exploring a Continuum in Political—Administrative Relations

• Published date: 01 September 2009
• Date: 01 September 2009
• Author: Tansu Demir
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02037.x

Tansu Demir

University of Texas at San Antonio

 e Complementarity View: Exploring a Continuum in

Political–Administrative Relations

Big Questions

Facing Public

Administration

Theory

Tansu Demir is an assistant professor

in the Department of Public Administration

at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

He received his doctoral degree in public

administration from Florida Atlantic University.

He previously taught classes at the University

of Illinois–Springf‌i eld and the University of

Central Florida. His research interests include

public administration theory, bureaucratic

politics, and public policy process. His research

has been published in

Public Administration

Review, Administration & Society, and the

International Journal of Public Administration.

E-mail: tansu.demir@utsa.edu

 e politics–administration dichotomy has drawn

criticism from contemporary public administration

scholars largely because of its lack of descriptive

accuracy and particular normative inclinations. In

their search for an alternative model to the dichotomy,

some scholars developed what is widely known today

as complementarity. Although this emerging view

received an enthusiastic welcome from many scholars

and practitioners, more research has yet to be done to

address its conceptual and empirical shortcomings. Using

survey data collected from a nationwide sample of city

managers, this study explores empirical foundations of

the complementarity view of the politics–administration

relationship. Specif‌i cally, the author f‌i rst identif‌i es a

politics–management continuum based on a review of

public administration literature on the complementarity

view and then analyzes survey data to see whether

the relationship between elected of‌f‌i cials and public

administrators is characterized by complementarity.

 e results of the analysis generally support the

complementarity view, in that the responses of city

managers mostly parallel the idea of a continuum in

elected of‌f‌i cial–public administrator relationships,

a continuum that moves from politics on one end to

management on the other end, with various policy and

administration activities in the middle.  is paper aims

to make a conceptual and empirical contribution to an

important question in public administration.

The politics–administration relationship has

been one of the most

contestable topics in

public administration.  e goal

of building conceptually sound,

empirically verif‌i able, and nor-

matively desirable models has

engaged many scholars during

the past decades in an ef‌f ort to

explain the role of public ad-

ministration in the policy proc-

ess of a democratic government.

Indeed, the politics–administra-

tion relationship continues to

carry signif‌i cant implications for both the disciplinary

identity and the institutional development of pub-

lic administration, and in spite of the tremendous

volume of research, a widely shared agreement on the

subject is a missing element in the literature (Goodsell

1983; Guy 2003; Henry 1975; Rutgers 1997; Svara

1999a; Van Riper 1983; Waldo 1990; Whicker, Olsh-

fksi, and Strickland 1993).

 e politics–administration dichotomy has drawn

criticism from contemporary public administration

scholars largely because of its lack of descriptive ac-

curacy and particular normative inclinations (Demir

and Nyhan 2008). In their search for an alternative

to the dichotomy, public administration scholars have

developed numerous conceptualizations. One such

conceptualization is known as the complementarity

view, which maintains that the relationship between

elected of‌f‌i cials and public administrators can best

be represented as a continuum ranging from politics

on one end to management on the other end, with

policy and administration standing in the middle.  e

complementarity view acknowledges the dif‌f erences

between elected of‌f‌i cials and public administrators,

stemming mainly from their distinct perspectives,

values, and formal positions; yet what distinguishes the

complementarity view from the traditional dichotomy

is a strong emphasis on the sharing of responsibilities,

ongoing interaction, and reciprocal inf‌l uences between

elected of‌f‌i cials and public administrators in the policy-

making process (Giegold 1978;

Nalbandian 1994; Svara 2001).

In contrast to the politics–

administration dichotomy, the

complementarity view supports

broader policy-making respon-

sibilities for public administra-

tors, along with signif‌i cant

involvement of elected of‌f‌i cials

in policy implementation.

Specif‌i cally, according to the

complementarity view, public

In contrast to the politics–

administration dichotomy,

the complementarity view

supports broader policy-

making responsibilities for

public administrators, along

with signif‌i cant involvement

of elected of‌f‌i cials in policy

implementation.

876 Public Administration Review • September | October 2009