The politics-administration

dichotomy

Theorizing Public Organizations STV2420

Kristoffer Kolltveit
kristoffer.kolltveit@stv.uio.no

24 February 2020
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 Plan of the day

• What is bureaucracy?

• APRs images

• The politics-administration dichotomy discussed

• Real dilemmas for civil servants?

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 The emergence of bureaucracy
• The emerging marked economy builds on:
– Less corruption
– Bookkeeping and precise accounting
– Binding contracts
– Predictability

• The Weberian bureaucracy

– Decisions should be made in accordance
with formal laws and regulations
– Hierarchical organization
– The staff must be paid and have specialized duties
– The authority should be related to position, not person
– Career based on competence (meritocratic principle)
– Division of work (politics and administration)

• A well functioning system depends on a bureaucracy that

prepares and implements political decisions
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 Weber on politics-administration

• Weber’s conception of the dichotomy:

– Responsibilities and ethical expectations
– Administrators should loyally execute the decisions
– Anonymously, without hate and without enthusiasm

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 Politics-administration dichotomy
• Hegel: Impartiality, but also political consciousness

• Gulick: heterogeneous functions

• Wilson: Policy formulation and policy implementation

– Administration outside the proper sphere of politics
– Administration a field of business, removed from the hurry and strife
of politics
– Related as machinery is part of the manufactured product

• Simon: Facts and Values dichotomy

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 APR’s classic visualisation

• Image I: Policy/Administration

• Image II: Facts/Interests

• Image III: Energy/Equilibrium

• Image IV: The Pure Hybrid

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 Image I: Policy/Administration
• Politicians make policy..
P A
..civil servants administer

• Politicians make decisions..

..bureaucrats implement them

• The separation is a norm in every states

• But it exalts the authority of politicians and cloaks the role
of bureaucrats
• It remains a prominent part of the mythology of
practitioners
• But not an adequate account of the division of labour
between politicians and bureaucrats
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 Image II: Facts and Interests
P A

• Both actors participate in policy making

P A
• But they have different contributions

• Politicians: interests and values

• Administration: facts and knowledge, neutral expertise

• Will it work vs. will it fly?

• Technical efficacy of policy vs. responsiveness to constituencies

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Image III: Energy/Equilibrium
P A

• Both actors engage in policymaking

P A
• Both are concerned with politics

• Separate and complementary roles P A

• Both need political skills, but not the same

• Narrow, focused interests of organized clienteles vs. Broad, diffuse

interest of unorganized individuals

• Passionate, partisan, idealistic, ideological vs. practical, pragmatic

• Publicity, energetic vs. back room, incremental changes, policy

balances
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Image IV: The Pure Hybrid
P A
• Bureaucratization of politics

• Politicization of bureaucracy P A

• Disappearance of the Weberian distinction

P A
• Janus-faced ministers

• Inward as administrators… P A
…outwards as political leaders

• Superbureaucrats: growing influence of public service, at the expense of

elected politicians

• Lines between political and career appointments complex and uncertain

• Were is the line drawn?

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 Empirical realities: APR….
• Image I and II: bureaucrats on lower levels

• Image III and IV: higher levels

• Developments from image I to II and III

• Towards Image IV?

• Bureaucrats: well educated, involved in mediating

interests. Brokers, serving a collective purpose

• Politicians: partisan, serving particular interest

• US bureaucrats more political roles, advocates, policy

entrepreneurs

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 …and beyond
• UK: back towards image II and I?

• Europe: Less law, more social science background

• The rise of ministerial advisors: move towards Image IV?

• Hartley et al.
– No sharp line
– A zone rather than a line
– There is aw a gap between rhetoric and reality

• Images build before or after data collection?

• Typology: defines theoretical concepts with dimensions based on a notion of

ideal type, for comparisons

• Taxonomy: classifies and measures characteristics on the basis of empirical

observations.

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 The Svara/Overeem discussion (1)
• Point of departure
– The dichotomy rejected as too rigid
– Politics-administration dichotomy is “false” or “invalid”
– Administration is involved in policy- making

• Political neutrality can well be regarded as the normative

cornerstone of the politics-administration dichotomy

• Overeem separates between

– Politics (power, electoral contest)
– Policy (content)

• The non-interference of administrators in the selection of elected

officials

• The non-interference of elected officials in selecting administrators

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The Svara/Overeem discussion (2)
• Svara: Not only selection, but also:

• Neutrality, not as passivity or non-action, but as speaking

truth to power

• Core Values, professionalism, expertise

• Functions and means: impact beyond policy, although

not in elections

• And they are ”involved” in elections: help defend their

minister

• And politicians are involved in hiring of civil servants

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The Svara/Overeem discussion (3)

• Overeem’s answer:

• The dichotomy is best compared to the separation of

powers doctrine

• Important normative elements, how things should be

• Such doctrines cannot be “falsified” by empirical

research

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Relevant in the Norwegian case

• New codex for Norwegian civil servants (2019)

• Training through realistic situations

• Dilemmas exemplifying conflicting values

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 Dilemma example
You are a civil servant in the Ministry who has a special
responsibility for cases to EFTA. The prime minister has
put forward a bill that involves passing Norwegian
sovereignty to the EU. There should be a referendum on
the question in four months. Your minister will participate
in a series of information meetings on the subject. You
are asked to contribute to the minster’s speech to reveal
why voters must vote yes in the referendum. You write
your contribution the way the minister has asked you.

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 Claim to be discussed

• Politics and administration are separate spheres

• What speaks for?

• What speaks against?

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 Summing up

• What is bureaucracy?
– Dichotomy as an integral part of Weber’s ideal

• APRs images
– Concepts and empirical realities

• The politics-administration dichotomy discussed

– Conceptual disagreements between scholars

• Everyday life dilemmas for civil servants

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 Next lecture
• Monday 2 March, 14:15–16:00

• ES Auditorium 2

• “Political control of the bureaucracy”

• M. Holmgren

• Kiewiet, D. R., & McCubbins, M. D. (1991); Lewis, D.

E. (2019); Moe, T. M. (2012); Pierre, J., & Peters, B.
G. (2017).

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