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This article distinguishes the competing interpretations of the politics-administration dichotomy, noting that as, originally framed, it was intended to detach partisan politics and patronage from sound public management. Waldo, the author suggests, concerned himself with the later, more expansive conception of the dichotomy, which included the process of policy making.
As Patrick Overeem cogendy demonstrates, Dwight Waldo wrestled with the politics-administration dichotomy at different points throughout his career. Waldo was not alone in finding that the field of public administration seemingly cannot live with or without the dichotomy. Woodrow Wilson, who is often mistakenly credited with formulating the dichotomy (Van Riper 1984), set the tone in his famous essay on "The Study of Administration." After asserting that "[t]he field of administration is a field of business. It is removed from the hurry and strife of politics," Wilson concludes that "[o]ur own politics must be the touchstone for all theories. The principles on which to base a science of administration for America must be principles which have democratic policy very much at heart" (1887, 20, 25). This apparent contradiction on Wilson's part is cleared up by adhering to the original meaning of the dichotomy as established or promoted by the civil service reformers of the 1870s and 1880s for strategic political purposes. When referring to "politics," the reformers meant what is now considered "partisan" or "electoral" politics. They were not referring to politics over questions of public policy, including administrative organization, budgeting, human resources management, and decision making. Wilson recognizes this, but he fails to make the distinction clear: "Let me expand a little what I have said of the province of administration. Most important to be observed is the truth already so much and so fortunately insisted upon by our civil-service reformers; namely that administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics. Administrative questions are not political questions. Although politics sets the tasks for administration, it should not be suffered to manipulate its offices" (20; second emphasis added). That is, administration should not be driven by partisan patronage and electoral politics. Treating the dichotomy in this fashion clears up a great deal of confusion.
The Dichotomy as a Strategy for Political Change
The literature in public administration often presents the 19th-century civil service reformers...