During the late 1800’s, the initial proposition to separate the fields of politics and public

administration was first introduced. Former President of the United States (US), Woodrow Wilson,
prompted the idea of making public administration as a separate academic discipline. In one of the then
President’s famous essay entitled, The Study of Administration (1887), he suggested that, “The field of
administration is a field of business. It is removed from the hurry and strife of politics;”. In contempt of
the many staunch supporters and advocates of the idea that Wilson engendered, the field of public
administration remained a sub-field of political science during the 1950’s-1970’s. It didn’t take too long,
though, for public administration to be recognized as an administrative science thus beseeming as an
independent field of study.

In the advent of Public Administration’s recognition as an independent field of study and while it
is safe to assume that the century-old debate on the dichotomous nature between Public-
Administration has “finally” come to rest, questions regarding the subject of PA has not reached a
decisive finish. Questions like, why and what triggered the need for a debate in the first place? Was it
really necessary to discuss the need to dichotomize politics and administration?

In order to provide answers to the questions raised, it is to our best interest to differentiate first
and to provide the obvious contrast between politics and administration. Politics, to the understanding
of the then President Woodrow Wilson, aspires to answer the question, “Who shall make law and what
shall it be?”, as a supplementary administration seeks to address the question, “How shall the law be
administered?”

Frank Goodnow, a legal scholar and Wilson’s contemporary, has expressed a similar persuasion
albeit succinctly: politics has something to do with policies or expression of the State’s will, while
administration serves as its operational arm in that it seeks to recognize the tools needed and the
mechanism to execute such policies. Both Wilson and Goodnow agreed to the extent that politics is
defined within the crafting of policies and laws—a function commonly vested upon the legislative body
of a State; and administration carries in itself the responsibility to implement those policies and laws—a
function normally held by a State’s executive branch.

Valid as it may, the definition is nearing its myopic end when applied in the context of present-
day government. To illustrate the contention, the Philippine Congress’ veto and oversight function can
be viewed as a clear manifestation of how that branch of the government can easily act alike and share
the authority of administration with its counterpart, the executive branch. Another is the exclusive
power of the President of the Philippines to introduce the budget proposal to the Congress
demonstrates how the President can assume a pre-eminent role in policy agenda. Apart from the
overlapping of functions of politics and administration, the problem which now remains is the
obsolescence of this longstanding differentiation of these fields.

A cursory definition of public administration quoted by today’s scholars would resonate

analogously with the essential meaning of Public Administration if politics were to be viewed as a field
concerned with the allocation of public goods and resources. To quote Professor John Vieg in his
definition of Public Administration, “embraces every area governed by public policy […] including the
formal processes through which the legislative exercises its power [and] the function of courts in the
administration of justice.” In today’s application, Public Administration is no longer a practice restricted
to the domain of the executive branch. As time goes by, Public Administration has now morphed and
developed (more concerned) into providing service to the public through the creation of necessary laws,
proactive implementation of laws crafted, and efficient delivery of public services.

With the definition of politics highly influencing administration or vice versa, there is little to no
disparity