The Development of Administrative Regulation
| Published date | 01 May 1942 |
| Date | 01 May 1942 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271624222100102 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
1
The
Development
of
Administrative
Regulation
By
JOHN
M.
PFIFFNER
THE
development of
modern
admin-
istrative
regulation
can
be
traced
through
the
milestones
of
social,
eco-
nomic,
and
political
evolution
of
the
last
two
centuries.
The
following
story
seeks
to
portray
the
broad
social
trends
which
produced
that
which
the
lawyer
refers
to
today
as
the
&dquo;administrative
process.&dquo;
Looking
back
upon
the
world
at
approximately
the
time
of
the
French
and
American
Revolutions,
say
the
1770’s,
one
sees
the
economy
of
that
day
emerging
from
an
era
of
governmental
control
of
business
known
as
&dquo;mercan-
tilism.&dquo;
The
most
remarkable
feature
of
that
control
was
the
effort
to
chan-
nelize
foreign
trade
so as
to
produce
a
favorable
balance,
without
neglecting
to
enrich
the
personal
coffers
of
the
sover-
eign
himself.
It
was
a
period
of
re-
strictions
which
set
up
many
barriers
to
the
free
flow
of
commerce
across
the
borders
of
states.
A
causal
analysis
of
the
American
Revolution
would
re-
veal
this
type
of
mercantilism
as
one
of
the
abuses
which
led
the
colonists
ultimately
to
revolt.
Within
the
colo-
nies
themselves
the
mercantilist
restric-
tions
sought
to
limit
certain
types
of
business
activities
to
the
members
of
merchants’
and
craftsmen’s
guilds
and
to
place
taxes,
licenses,
and
other
bur-
dens
upon
produce
entering
a
city’s
gates.
REACTION
AGAINST
GOVERNMENTAL
CONTROL
Adam
Smith’s
Wealth
of
Nations
was
a
reaction
against
that
type
of
govern-
mental
control
of
business
manifested
by
mercantilism.
The
free
flow
of
com-
merce
unrestricted
by
legal
and
arti-
ficial
barriers
would
stimulate
business
activity
and
bring
about
the
maximum
economic
prosperity.
The
practice
of
laissez
faire
would
place
a
premium
upon
individual
creativeness,
ingenuity,
and
enterprise,
and
would
cause
indi-
viduals
to
make
contributions
to
society
in
proportion
to
their
competence.
The
law
of
supply
and
demand,
interacting
through
the
free
price
system,
would
bring
about
an
automatic
regulation
of
industry
and
commerce
with
subsequent
good
to
society
as
a
whole.
In
other
words,
laissez
faire
was
a
liberal
move-
ment
aimed
at
social
reform
through
the
abolition
of
the
privileged
status
in
commerce
previously
maintained
by
governmental
intervention.
It
is
significant
that
economic
indi-
vidualism
and
laissez
faire
were
gen-
erated
as
living
philosophies
contem-
poraneously
with
the
movements
for
political
freedom
and
democracy.
Thus
the
concepts
of
natural
law
and
social
contract
emblazoned
in
words
of
action
the
principles
of
equality,
fraternity,
and
liberty
in
the
French
Rights
o f
Man
and
of
a
Citizen
and
the
American
Dec-
laration
of
Independence.
In
Great
Britain the
Reform
Act
of
1832
was
to
be
passed
within
a
short
span
of
years.
Now,
both
economic
and
politi-
cal
reform
exalted
the
individual.
But
that
eighteenth
century
which
gave
birth
to
those
noble
documents
and
deeds-which
envisaged
the
en-
thronement
of
man
as
a
person-also
set
in
motion
events
which
seemed
to
challenge
the
original
thesis.
It
is
sym-
bolic
of
the
paradoxes
of
history
that
the
identical
soil
and
decade
responsible
for
the
birth
of
the
Wealth
o
Nations
should
also
produce
the
steam
engine;
for
it
was
James
Watt’s
invention
which
set
in
motion
the
industrial
revolution
which
is
largely
responsible
for
govern-
mental
regulation
of
business
today.
However,
before
expanding
upon
that
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