Bureaucracy and Self-Government: Reconsidering the Role of Public Administration in American Politics (Interpreting American Politics) - Hardcover

Cook, Professor Brian J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801854091 ISBN 13: 9780801854095

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996

Synopsis

For more than two centuries, argues Brian J. Cook in Bureaucracy and Self-Government, two conceptions of public administration have coexisted in American politics: the "instrumental" (bureaucracy's job is to carry out the orders of elected officials) and the "constitutive" (bureaucracy shapes public policy and thus the character of the political community). Through an examination of key conflicts in American political development -- from the debates of 1789 through the Jacksonian era controversies and the confrontations of the New Deal -- Cook shows how these two views of public administration have been in constant tension, with the instrumental view eventually dominating public discourse.

About this title

About the Author:

Brian J. Cook is associate professor and chair of the department of government and international relations at Clark University. He is the author of Bureaucratic Politics and Regulatory Reform: The EPA and Emissions Trading.

Review:

"Traces, often quite nicely and originally, the tension between what the author calls 'instrumental' and 'constitutive' conceptions of public administration through American history... a provocative argument... [that] provides extensive evidence of the potency of the instrumental conception of the bureaucracy for American politicians." -- Robert C. Lieberman, Political Science Quarterly

About this edition

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0801854091
• ISBN 13: 9780801854095
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 184