The Politics–Administration Dichotomy: An Empirical Search

for Correspondence between Theory and Practice

Tansu Demir University of Illinois Ronald C. Nyhan Florida Atlantic University

Tansu Demir is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration at the University of Illinois–
Springfield. He received his doctoral degree in public administration from Florida Atlantic University. His
research interests include public administration theory, bureaucratic politics, and public policy process. He has
forthcoming articles in Administration & Society and the International Journal of Public Administration.

Ronald C. Nyhan is an associate professor in the School of Public Adminis- tration at Florida Atlantic
University. He has published in such journals as the American Review of Public Administration, Interna- tional
Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior, State and Local Government Review, Public Administration
Quarterly, International Journal of Public Administra- tion, International Review of Administrative Sciences,
and Review of Public Personnel Administration.

Background
The politics–administration dichotomy has been one of the most disputed theories of public
administration. Despite serious critiques, neither the theoretical utility nor the normative power of the
dichotomy has totally disappeared over the past decades. The dichotomy has been advocated on the grounds that
the dichotomous division of labor and authority between elected and administra- tive officials increases the
democratic accountability and planning ability of public administrators.

This article first builds a theoretical model of the politics– administration dichotomy and then evaluates the
model using empirical data collected from a nationwide sample of city managers serving in council-manager
local governments. Results of structural equation modeling illustrate that the politics–administration dichotomy
fails to obtain its predicted tendencies in actuality.

The authors interpret the findings in light of the contemporary public administration literature. The article aims
to make a theoretical-empirical contribution to one of the most challenging questions in public administration.

Findings

To evaluate the degree of correspondence between the theory and practice of the dichotomy, they used structural
equation modeling (SEM). This method helps researchers test two or more relationships among directly
observable or unmeasured latent variables. It takes a confirmatory approach and is particularly used to evaluate
theoretical models.

The initial test of the theoretical model produced fit indices lower than the minimum suggested values. After
having examined the results of the statistical analysis, they decided to improve the model fit though model
modification. Structural equation modeling allows researchers to make theoretically justifiable modifications to
the model to improve the fit. they reviewed the modification indices reported by AMOS. They decided to add
two new parameters to the model:

● The first is between disturbance of neutrality and political guidance. they had two justifications for this: (1)
the political activities of public administrators might militate against elected officials’ power to guide
administration (e.g., Svara 1990, 37), or

(2) the failure or unwillingness of elected officials to provide political guidance may force public administrators
to engage in politics and thus to fill the void (e.g., Hassett and Watson 2002).
● The second is between the error term of the fourth legislative oversight variable (reporting implementation
progress to the council) and the disturbance of planning ability. Because information (from subordinate to the
superior) reduces uncertainty for the superior, the superior becomes more capable of providing guidance to
public administrators for planning (e.g., Carrell 1962; Koehler 1973; Sparrow 1984).

The results of SEM indicate a lack of correspondence between the theory and practice of the dichotomy.
According to the dichotomy model, the function of politics is political guidance, which means formulating,
clarifying, and communicating public’s preferences.

In other words, political guidance is for “setting the task” officials, the lack of resources available to elected of
ficials, as well as considerable time spent on casework (e.g., White 1982; Wikstrom 1979).

The dichotomyduality model accepts dichotomy solely between politics and management, yet it encourages
reciprocal influence and overlapping roles between elected and administrative officials with respect to policy
and administration.

Conclusions

This research intended to make both theoretical and empirical contributions to one of the most challeng- ing
questions in the field of public administration. They conceptualized the dichotomy, specified a theoretical
model, and then evaluated the model using survey data collected from a nationwide sample of city managers in
council-manager local governments.

The results of SEM revealed some problems with the dichotomy model, showing a lack of explanatory power.
They found that political guidance had a low and nonsignificant impact on the planning ability of the public
administrators.

On the other hand, they found a strong association between political guidance and democratic accountability.
Taken together, these results show that elected officials play a more dominant role in legitimizing policy
initiatives and changes rather than “setting the task” for public administration.

Also, they found that neutral competence was significantly associated with planning ability yet negatively
associated with democratic accountability. They interpret these findings to mean that neutral competence, with
its focus on expertise, neutrality, and hierarchy, is important yet insufficient for effec tive planning.

This study intended to make a theoretical and empirical contribution to one of the most challenging questions in
the field of public administration. The data came from a sample where the dichotomy’s assumptions were
approximately satisfied. However,their analysis failed to produce satisfactory empirical evidence in support of
the politicsadministration dichotomy. If the dichotomy model fails to obtain its predicted tendencies in a setting
in which the dichotomy is most likely to work, it is less likely that it will work in other governmental settings in
which the labor and authority between elected and administrative officials are not divided along clear functional
lines.

As Svara (1985) rightly noted, one of the most important reasons for the continuing power of the dichotomy is
the lack of a strong alternative to the dichotomy an alternative that would not only better describe the politics–
administration relationship but also appeal to practitioners and academics. Basically, there are three important
tasks that lie ahead for working out the question of how politics and administration are (and should be)
connected to each other.

We should (1) conceptualize the politics–administration relationship in a mode that is less dichotomous yet
more cooperative,

(2) evaluate the alternative model with systematic data in order to identify patterns in practice, and

(3) provide support with empirical evidence that the alternative model to the dichotomy produces desired results
without compromising democratic accountability and adminis- trative performance. If these three steps are
concluded with some measure of success, it is less likely that we will be discussing the tension between how the
political–administrative life “actually” works and how it “should” work.