James W. Fesler

Administrative Literature and the Second Hoover Commission Reports.

The appearance of the second Hoover Commission reports is an invitation to attempt to place them in the context of official and unofficial efforts over the past quarter century to give order and meaning to the study of public administration and of its leading example, our national administration. The object here is more than bibliographical, and if it seems ambitious it can hardly be more so than the Commissions own work. No previous study has been so amply financed, or has employed so many people, or has enjoyed such official and public relations support, in and out of government, as this one. What do the reports have to contribute, to knowledge and to policy about organization?

French Field Administration: The Beginnings

The economic, social, and political development of newly independent nations depends upon the prior or concurrent strengthening of public administration. To be sure, the path of national development is a circular one as it traces a spiral ascent in which a step forward in one kind of development makes possible the next step in another. The administrative arc of this circle is here emphasized not because it is more basic than the others, but because it has often been slighted. New governments, often on the recommendation of technical-assistance advisors, adopt excellent programs in health, agriculture, education, and industry, but then fail to translate these programs from paper to action. The fault is not lack of earnest intent but the burden of an unresponsive and weak administrative system.

Federal Use of Administrative Areas

2. Many social phenomena coincide as to area, thereby creating the homogeneous region. 3. Regional institutions, mores, crafts, art, and literature should be protected against the threats of a monotonous national uniformity.1 4. Governmental handling of regional phenomena should be at the regional level, rather than at a national, state, or local level. The four propositions as stated, are, to my way of thinking, incontrovertible. But each, if pushed too far, can become an absurd assertion. There is no valid geographic version of Calvinistic predestination. Many social phenomena do not coincide as to area. Some regional customs do violence to national standards of justice and should give way to the higher national standards. Establishment of regional governments would so complicate the governmental structure that we should soon tire of being governed by such a logical unit.