Administrative Reorganization: An Adventure into Science and Theology

Abstract

The state administrative reorganization movement undoubtedly captured the fancy of the American political science profession as no other reform program ever succeeded in doing. Dissenters have been few, their attacks sporadic. Evidence that non-belief is spreading, that heresy is invading high places of the profession, makes timely a critical inquiry into the fact and theory which support the orthodox program. The invitation to review two recent books supplies an excuse for undertaking that inquiry here. Mr. A. E. Buck's The Reorganization of State Administration in the United States' is a revision and elaboration of the pamphlet entitled Administrative Consolidation in State Governments which appeared in its fifth edition in 1930. The new volume requires little comment except notation that the description of reorganizations proposed or adopted in the forty-eight states is substantially extended, and that the four standards of reorganization which were included in former editions are now recast and expanded into six. They are: (1) concentration of authority and responsibility; (2) departmentalization, or functional integration; (3) undesirability of boards for purely administrative work; (4) coordination of the staff services of administration; (5) provision for an independent audit; and (6) recognition of a governor's cabinet. These six standards will undoubtedly be accepted as the primary distinguishing features of the reorganization program as it has been proposed by theorists. Mr. Buck's conviction that they are the pillars of a sound administrative structure is witnessed throughout the book.