The Founders, the Constitution, and Public Administration: A Conflict in World Views

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Georgetown University Press, 1 мар. 1995 г. - Всего страниц: 128

Viewed alternately as an obstacle to justice, an impediment to efficient government, and a tool by which some groups gain benefits and privileges at the expense of others, public administration threatens to become the whipping boy of American government. In this innovative look at the nation's bureaucracy, Michael W. Spicer revisits the values of the Constitution in order to reconcile the administrative state to its many critics.

Drawing on political and social philosophy, Spicer argues that there is a fundamental philosophical conflict over the role of reason in society between writers in public administration and the designers of the American Constitution. This examination of worldviews illuminates the problem that American government faces in trying to ground a legitimate public administration in the Constitution. Defending and developing the Founders' idea that political power, whatever its source, must be checked, he critically examines existing ideas about the role of public administration in American governance and offers an alternative vision of public administration more in line with the Founders' constitutional design. This book will provide fresh insights for anyone interested in the role of public administration in the United States today.

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THE FINER ARGUMENT
59
THE FRIEDRICHFINER DEBATE AND THE CHECKING OF POWER
62
CONCLUSION
66
An Antirationalist Vision of Public Administration
67
MODERN WRITINGS ON ADMINISTRATION AS A CHECK ON POWER
69
THE ANGLOAMERICAN TRADITION OF ADMINISTRATIVE DISCRETION
71
RULES AND PROCEDURES
73
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
76

Rationalist and Antirationalist Worldviews
13
THE RATIONALIST WORLDVIEW
14
RATIONALIST THOUGHT
15
THE ANTIRATIONALIST WORLDVIEW
20
ANTIRATIONALIST THOUGHT
21
SUMMARY
25
The Worldviews of Public Administration and the Constitution
26
CONTEMPORARY WRITERS
30
ANTIRATIONALISM AND THE FOUNDERS
34
CONCLUSION
39
On the Checking of Power The Logic of a Constitution
41
PASSIONS
45
UNINTENDED EXPLOITATION
46
MAJORITY RULE
48
THE USE OF KNOWLEDGE
50
CONCLUSION
53
Visions of Public Administration
54
THE FRIEDRICH ARGUMENT
55
INERTIA INFLEXIBILITY AND IMPERSONALITY
78
CONSTRAINED DISCRETION
79
The Ethics of Administrative Discretion
81
PERSONAL HONESTY
82
NEUTRALITY
84
UTILITY
86
SOCIAL EQUITY
87
COMMONLAW REASONING
89
CONSENSUS
93
SUMMARY
95
Summary and Conclusion
97
THE CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE OF THE ANTIRATIONALIST VISION
98
ANTIRATIONALISM IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE
100
TOWARD A NEW PERSPECTIVE
102
References
105
Index
111
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Стр. 36 - Extend the sphere and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength and to act in unison with each other.
Стр. 38 - If men were angels, no Government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on Government would be necessary. In framing a Government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this : you must first enable the Government to control the governed ; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
Стр. 81 - As there is a degree of depravity in mankind, which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust : so there are other qualities in human nature, which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form.
Стр. 34 - ... whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force.
Стр. 23 - ... seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society, with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board...
Стр. 45 - A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for preeminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions...
Стр. 24 - We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason; because we suspect that this stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages.
Стр. 19 - By its aid we may hereafter succeed not only in looking far forward into the future history of the human race, but in determining what artificial means may be used, and to what extent, to accelerate the natural progress in so far as it is beneficial; to compensate for whatever may be its inherent inconveniences or disadvantages; and to guard against the dangers or accidents to which our species is exposed from the necessary incidents of its progression.
Стр. 50 - And because it may be too great a temptation to human frailty, apt to grasp at power, for the same persons who have the power of making laws, to have also in their hands the power to execute them...
Стр. 46 - So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions, and excite their most violent conflicts* But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property.

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Об авторе (1995)

Michael W. Spicer is a professor of public administration and urban affairs at the Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University.

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