This slides talks about the relationship between the politics and the administrative

1. BEYOND DICHOTOMY: Dwight Waldo and the
Intertwined Politics-Administration Relationship
Reported by:
Abubakar S. Mama

2. Some Debate Issues on Politics-Administration Dichotomy
Dichotomy - refers to the division of a class into two mutually exclusive
subclasses; Subdivided or separate and classifies; simply to become
separated into two parts.
Debated issues:
• Politics-administration dichotomy connotes a complete
separation, and its opposite, it only entails total intermixture.
• Any distinction between politics and administration is dichotomy,
and the other or the opposite, its distinction or differentiation is
the basis for interactions/intermixtures of politics-administration
dichotomy.

3. For more clarifications: (Reporter’s research
output):
Woodrow Wilson:
In 1887 he published his book entitled “The
Study of Administration”, proposed the
separation of politics from that of
administrative system. He further stressed”
although politics formulate policies and set task
in administration, it could not be denied that it
is the administrators that execute the policies
to be implemented or issued”.

4. Frank Goodnow:
In his book “Politics and Administration” published in 1900, he supported
W. Wilson’s view on the separation of politics from that of administrative
system. He further viewed that government has two distinct functions:
politics and administration, where politics has to do with policies or
expression of the state’s will; while administration has to do with the
execution of these policies or the will of the state. Where, the center of
Public administration is on the government.
Others,
like, F.W. Willoughby, Luther Gulick (POSDCORB), and Lyndal Urwick
acknowledged, that the place/focus of Public Administration is on the
Principle of Administration

5. Three Points on the Issues by the Author-Commentator
First Point: D. Waldo was not a staunch critic of
Dichotomy
Staunch - means firm and constant in principle (Webster
Comprehensive Dictionary 1990).
The author focus this view point on D.Waldo, in his
book entitled “The Administrative State: A Study of the
Political Theory of American Public Administration, where
Waldo rejected a sharp separation of politics and
administration in his view in a form of “you-go-your-way
and I’ll-go-mine”.

6. The rise of heterodoxy in 1930s Waldo had contributed to
a “newer theory” that disagreed “not with politics-
administration dichotomy itself, only with the spirit of rigid
separatism”.
Moreover, D. Waldo’s idea as observed in his work,
supporting or rejecting dichotomy depends on what kind of
distinction or differentiation of politics-administration
relationship.
Therefore the author-commentator deduced that Waldo
was not a staunch critic of Dichotomy and that he is certainly
a part of the new approach to thinking. Thus, he was not a
staunch critic of Dichotomy.

7. Second Point: D. Waldo’s definition of dichotomy is unclear:
More interested in the issue of Politics-Administration.
Through the end of 1940s Waldo and other scholars rarely
used the term “dichotomy”
In 1950s Waldo used “dichotomy” to refer to the decision-
execution distinction and later refer it to the relationship
between politics-administration.
The author-commentator observed that D.Waldo’s
definition of dichotomy is unclear and that he seems more
interested in the relationship of politics and administration.

8. Third Point: D. Waldo helped shaped the view of the
development of Public Administration
The author-commentator observed, a review of the early
literature suggest that the idea of dichotomy was a product
of the orthodox period of the 1920s and 1930s (rather than
the founding period) .
D. Waldos books entitled “The Administrative State”
(1948) and “The Study of Public Administration “(1955)
contriburted to the widespread acceptance of the notion
(hastily formed theory or simply an opinion- Comprehensive
Webster Dictionary) that a dichotomy between politics and
administration was the founding theory of public
administration.

9. But, this notion was standardized by
Sayre in his article, into a simple view that
put administrators in a “self-contained
world” and essentially passive position,
concerned exclusively with the execution of
assignments handed down by politics.
A careful reading of Waldo’s work
revealed more complex views and later
articulated a more balanced view, it still
fuelled questions about the legitimacy of
administrative involvement in policy
making.

10. Author-commentator’s Interpretation of Politics-
Administration Quandary
D. Waldo’s conditional rejection of the idea of
separation between politics-administration
(sometimes labelled dichotomy), the unclear shifting
definitions of what it means and the tendency to
attribute to the founders of public administration, to
all scholars and commentators before 1930s, the
intense support for rigid separation that is not
justified, left us with contradiction in opinions.

11. Author-Commentator’s Perspective: Where do we go
from here?
• It is viewed that politics-administration dichotomy is
indefensible
( hard to defend) and treat it similar to geocentrism (center,
foundation).
• The author-commenter deduced (assumed) that one can
certainly use the term “dichotomy” to refer to the
elements of distinction and separation.
• Moreover, the author-commentator also deduce that
Politicians are free to make decisions, but with a
relationship based on interaction within limits.
• A relationship with limits is one which one sphere
dominates the other, or in which politicians and
administrators are direct competitors in the political
process.

12. • A relationship with limits but without
interactions is less common,
• D.Waldo’s contribution was to lay the
foundation and fill in the content of
normative model of public
administration. Also concluded that
“we cannot live without active
exchange between politicians and
administrators in policy making and
implementation .

13. Reporter’s research on the topic
• Dwight Waldo is commonly known as a “heterodox” critic of the
dichotomy between politics and administration.
• D. Waldo’s works bring forth several questions at the center ( as
a practice and as a field of study) of Public Administration that
have themes on : Politics-Administration Dichotomy, the
separation of powers in the government (decision and
execution); Political Philosophy; Centralization of government
versus decentralization of government; Ancient Greece: Nature
of the good life, bases of decision and who should rule.
• Each of us has a right to introduce our opinion on the field and
practice of public administration. Specially, on politics-
administration dichotomy as issues on this is still progressing.