PAHS 011:

POLITICAL SETTING IN ADMINISTRATION

LECTURE TWO:
THE POLITICS-ADMINISTRATION DICHOTOMY
SAMPSON DANSO,
DEPT. OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
sdanso@ug.edu.gh/dansosampson@gmail.com
 OUTLINE
• What is Politics-Administration Dichotomy?
• Models and Proponents of Politics-Administration
Dichotomy
– Orthodox Model
– Modified Model
– Partnership Model
– Complementarity Model
• Relevance of Politics-Administration Dichotomy
• Revision Questions

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 WHAT IS POLITICS-
ADMINISTRATION DICHOTOMY?
• The proper role of public administration in the political
process has remained an important question since the
emergence of public administration as a field of study in
the late1880s.
• The Politics-Administration Dichotomy is an ever-enduring
debate which examines the relationship between politics
and public administration. At the heart of this debate is
the question: “what should be the relationship between
politics and public administration.”

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 WHAT IS POLITICS-
ADMINISTRATION DICHOTOMY?
• Demir (2008) defines it as ‘a theoretical model that
emphasizes distinct features of public administration vis-à-
vis politics.
• The politics-administration dichotomy rests on a functional-
structural view of government, dividing governmental
authority between elected and administrative officials
along functional lines.
• As such, government is conceptualized as though it has
two discrete domains as politics and administration, with
each one occupied separately by elected and
administrative officials. 4
 WHAT IS POLITICS-
ADMINISTRATION DICHOTOMY?
• This debate over the years has raged over the centuries.
For some, policy implementation or execution is the
exclusive preserve of the bureaucrat; at the same time,
policy formulation or design is the preserve of the
elected officials and these should never coincide.
• Other schools of thought seem to stray from the original
position arguing that a strict separation between politics
and public administration.

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 MODELS OF POLITICS-
ADMINISTRATION DICHOTOMY:
The Orthodox Model:
• This model advocates for a near strict separation between
politics and public administration.
• The objective of politics and public administration are
inherently different thus while the broad goal of politics is
to capture and maintain power for purposes of running
the government machinery, that of administration is to
execute government policy.
• Leading proponents include Woodrow Wilson, Leonard
White, Max Weber and Frank Goodnow.
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 THE ORTHODOX MODEL:
• The Orthodox Model revolved around the logic
of
– Political neutrality
– Specialized functioning in a specific sphere
– Capability of a knowledgeable elite to play a role
in public service
– Making way for scientific efficiency

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PROPONENTS OF THE ORTHODOX
MODEL (WOODROW WILSON)

• He argued that the “field of administration is a field of

business removed from hurry and strife of politics.”
Administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics.
Administrative questions are not political questions.

• Wilson advocated the creation of a technically

competent apolitical or neutral administrative system of
governance where both politicians and administrators
strictly pursue their respective public obligations.
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 PROPONENTS OF THE ORTHODOX
MODEL (FRANK GOODNOW)

• In his book "Politics and Administration" (1900), argued

that there were two basic functions of government: the
expression of the popular will and the execution of that
will.
• For him, politics provides the means by which the modern
states expresses its will while administration is the means
to execute the will of the state. He argued: “political
control over administrative functions is liable...to produce
inefficient administration.
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 PROPONENTS OF THE ORTHODOX
MODEL (MAX WEBER)
• In his book ‘Politics as a vocation’, Weber draws a sharp
line between administrators and politicians. According to
his proper vocation, the genuine civil servant...should not
engage in politics, but administer, above all impartially.
• Hence, he shall precisely not do what the politician, the
leader as well as his following, must always and
necessarily do, namely, fight.
• For partisanship, fight, passion and stadium are the
politician’s element. For Max Weber, separating
administration from politics will enhance the neutrality of
administrators. 10
PROPONENTS OF THE ORTHODOX
MODEL (LEONARD WHITE)

• He argued that politics should not intrude on

administration and that management lends itself to
scientific study; public administration is capable of
becoming a “value-free” science in its own right; the
mission of administration is economy and efficiency.

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 CRITICS OF THE ORTHODOX
MODEL
• F. M. Marx in his book, ‘Elements of Public
Administration,’ noted that ‘apparently neutral
administrative decisions are often laden with political
preferences
• John M. Gaus noted that ‘a theory of administration in
our times is also a theory of politics.

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 THE MODIFIED MODEL
• To this model, the administrator can participate in the
policy process (which is not necessarily politics), exercise
as much discretion as the council will allow and still
maintain in a strong non-political position.
• It permits public administrators to provide leadership to
elected officials (politicians) and still engage in policy
making, while prohibiting politicians from interfering in the
management of government.
• Leading proponents of this model include: Robert Montjoy,
Douglas Watson, Dunn and Jeromes Jr, John Pfiffner and
James Svara. 13
 PROPONENTS OF THE MODEL
Pfiffner:
• He argued that it would be reckless to suggest that
administrative officers should have absolutely no hand in
the formulation of policy.
Svara:
• He reckons a city manager is a “community leader who
submits policy proposals to the council and provides the
council with facts and advices on matters of policy to give
the council a basis for making decisions on the community
goals.”
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 THE PARTNERSHIP MODEL
• It has criticized the Orthodox Model as being highly
unreflective of the complexities of modern government.
• Both administrators and politicians are most often directly
or indirectly in the policy making process and therefore
elected officials must be involved in policy design and
implementation.

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 PROPONENTS OF THE MODEL
• Dimock, Dimock and Koenig state that no administrator can
sit quietly outside the ring and watch this pulling and
hauling; the public administrator must become a kind of
ringmaster and strategist combined who must not only direct
his program but also win support for it from the legislature,
from his own employees, from the public served, and from
other governmental agencies that also must be satisfied.
• Dimock, on his part, states that “politics runs all the way
through administration.” Additionally, Norton Long indicated
that the lifeblood of administration is power (politics).
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 PROPONENTS OF THE MODEL
• Dwight Waldo argued that the rigid, even strict,
separation of politics and administration has been
almost wholly abandoned for some time now.
• Paul Appleby argued that the sharp and real
separations of policy-making have been
undergoing abandonment. Policy and
administration are treated together at every level.

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 THE COMPLEMENTARITY MODEL
• It stresses on interdependency, reciprocal influence, and
extensive interaction between elected and appointed
officials, but with the recognition of the need for distinct
roles and political supremacy.

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 PROPONENT(S) OF THE MODEL
• Svara advocates a careful investigation of the
relationship that should exist between appointed and
elected officials in a democracy and the impact they
have on each other.
• This line of argument is consistent with the Functionalist
System Theory which holds that both administrators and
politicians are seen as individual subsystems within the
larger political system. Hence, complementarity is an
important of the political system.

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 RELEVANCE OF THE POLITICS-
ADMINISTRATION DICHOTOMY DEBATE
• It has enhanced one’s understanding of the objects of politics
and administration because it has contributed to clarifying
the reason for existence for both politics and public
administration.
• It has revealed the broad features/essential character of
both politics and public administration thereby illuminating
their defining characteristics at least for analytical purposes.
• It has contributed to the intellectual development of politics
and public administration. Particularly in the case of public
administration, it has established and strengthen its methods
and principles. 20
 REVISION QUESTIONS
• Comment on the view that the Orthodox Model projects
sound arguments in the Politics-Administration Dichotomy
ahead of the other models
• Delineate the line of argument between the Modified
model and the Partnership Model.
• Would you say that the Complementarity Model is only an
extension of the Partnership Model in the Politics-
Administration Dichotomy?
• The debate on the Politics-Administration Dichotomy has no
relevance in contemporary Public administration studies.
Comment. 21