Definition
Bureaucracy and politicians is a concept that refers to the theoretical relationship between bureaucrats and politicians in the affairs of the state. While defining politicians and bureaucrats, Wilson (1887: 210) stated that “politics is state activity in this great and universal, while administration, on the other hand, is the activity of the state in individual and small things.” According to Wilson, “politics is thus the special province of the statesman, administration of the technical officials. Policy does nothing without the aid of administration, but administration is not therefore politics” (Wilson 1887: 209–210). Thus, this concept is used to provide a clarification about the role of bureaucrats and politicians in the administration of the state.
Introduction
Elected politicians and appointed bureaucrats are two...
References
Box R (1999) Running government like a business implications for public administration theory. Am Rev of Public Adm 29(1):19–43
Carino LV (1991) Regime changes, the bureaucracy, and political development. In: Farazmand A (ed) Handbook of comparative and development public administration. Mercel Dekker, New York
Farazmand A (1997) Bureaucrats and politicians in comparative perspective. In: Farazmand A (ed) Modern systems of government. SAGE Publications, Inc., London, pp ix–xvii
Heady F (1984) Public administration: A comparative perspective. Marcel Dekker, New York
Huber JD, Shipan CR (2011) Politics, Delegation, and Bureaucracy. In: Goodin RE (ed) The Oxford handbook of political science
Kwon S, Tang S (1998) Reinventing government: a critique from institutional perspective. Int J Public Adm 21(10):1449–1471
Nicholson-Crotty S (2009) Politics and management: revisiting the politics/administration dichotomy in order to build a more complete understanding of public management. Public Perform Manag Rev 32:610–617
Ostrom E (1991) A framework for institutional analysis. Working paper. Indiana University, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis
O’Toole LJ (1987) Doctrines and Developments: Separation of Powers, the Politics Administration Dichotomy, and the Rise of the Administrative State, Public Administration Review 47:17–25
Peters BG, Pierre J (2001) Politicians, bureaucrats and administrative reform. Routledge, London
Rouban L (2007) Public management and politics: senior bureaucrats in France. Public Adm 85(2):473–501
Svara JH (1999) Complementarity of politics and administration as a legitimate alternative to the dichotomy model. Adm Soc 30:676–705
Svara JH (2001) The myth of the dichotomy: Complementarity of politics and administration in the past and future of public administration. Public Adm Rev 61:176–184
Vigoda-Gadot E, Mizrahi S (2008) Public sector management and the democratic ethos, a longitudinal study of key relationships in Israel. J Public Adm Res Theory 18:79–107
Weber M (1947) The theory of social and economic organization (trans). Henderson and Parsons, New York
Wilson W (1887) The study of administration. Polit Sci Q 2(2):197–222
Wood D, Waterman RW (1991) The Dynamics of Political Control of the Bureaucracy. Am Polit Sci Rev 85(3):801–828
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Panday, P.K. (2017). Bureaucracy and Politicians: Dynamics and Challenges. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3293-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3293-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences