Woodrow Wilson Contribution to Public Administration 1

Woodrow Wilson Contribution to Public Administration

McCormick, Peter

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Southern New Hampshire University: Public Administration 330-J3173

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January 10, 2021

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 Woodrow Wilson Contribution to Public Administration 2

Woodrow Wilson was not happy with his early career and was looking for a way to gain

fame and notoriety, so he published an article in Political Science Quarterly. At the time he

thought that he had accomplished nothing saying, “Thirty-one years old and nothing done!”

(Shafritz, 2017). Wilson felt this way because he was stuck in a position that was not

challenging him and he knew that he had so much more potential to bring to the table. He

resented having to teach women often saying that he was relaxing his mental muscle by teaching

women (Shafritz, 2017). Wilson's frustration causing him to find a way out of this troubling

situation by publishing, “The Study of Administration” as his way out of that situation. He was

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looking for a way out because he thought that public administration also needed a way to be

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separated from political science. Wilson thought that the newly emerging field of political

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science needs a new focus and direction. Wilson thought that rather than be concerned with the
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“lasting maxims of political wisdom,” he argued that political science should concentrate on the

more generally neglected details of how governments are administered. This is necessary
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because “it is getting harder to run a constitution than to frame one (Shafritz, 2017). “Wilson was
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well ahead of his time and he was right that the government needs to be divided into two

different sectors of politics and administration. Politics would question and formulate new
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policy’s and administrations would be a way of carrying out the new policy.

Woodrow Wilson thought that public administration should be run like a business. He
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wanted public administration to focus on all aspects of management, not just the problem of

personal management. He wanted public administration to be separate from politics because he

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thought that the administrative duties of politics were behind the scenes of politics and should be

run like a business. He wanted his public appointment to be based on merit and not have

anything to do with politics.

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 Woodrow Wilson Contribution to Public Administration 3

Wilson’s major contributions to the field of public administration were to finally have

public administration be recognized as a separate part of the political science field. By thinking

that public administration should be run like a business was smart because implementing new

policy is far different from creating them. It takes an organized plan to run a business and a

similar plan is needed to implement a new policy. Politics administration dichotomy, efficiency,

and economy we significant at the time because they would make politics partisan and not be

wasteful. The political administration dichotomy would focus on the science of management and

be separate from traditional politics (Shafritz, 2017). Efficiency and economy were to figure out

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what the government can properly and successfully do and how it can do these proper things

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with the utmost possible efficiency and at the least possible cost (Shafritz, 2017). Both are

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relevant today as our government is always trying to find ways to reach an agreement in a
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partisan cost-effective manner. All political groups have a budget to follow and efficiency and

economy must be at the top of their list to find the most effective way to stay within their
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budgets.
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 Woodrow Wilson Contribution to Public Administration 4

Reference

Shafritz, J. M. (2017). VitalSource Bookshelf Online. Retrieved January 10, 2021, from
https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781317213925/cfi/6/18!/4/368/16@0:44.5

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