An Introduction to the Administrative State

Abstract

State formation has historically been driven by needs to administrate war and taxation and as responses to domestic rivalries, in which bureaucratization and the rise of public governments have been by-products (Ansell & Lindvall, 2021; Grzymala-Busse, 2019; Kelemen & McNamara, 2022; Tilly, 1992). The Administrative State, originally coined by Dwight Waldo (1947) and as revisited within the current volume, emphasizes the central role of public administration in democratic systems of governance (March & Olsen, 1984: 741; Olsen, 2018). Seventy years ago, Dwight Waldo (1952) wrote: ‘If administration is indeed “the core of modern government,” then a theory of democracy in the twentieth century must embrace administration.’ Departing from the invitation and lessons of Waldo, this volume suggests that the contemporary administrative state has transformed its basic role in democracy and that a theory of politics needs to embrace the role of public administration. Responding to recurrent debates about the claimed divorce between political science and public administration (e.g., Kettle, 2022) as well as between theory and practice (e.g., Pollitt, 2000), this book aims to identify two major shifts in the role of the administrative state and ultimately how these feed into politics, as well as outlines a theoretical approach that accounts for dynamics of these shifts in the administrative state. The book argues and demonstrates that organization theory has two distinct contributions: First, it offers a bridge between political science and public administration by arguing that administrative structures fundamentally shape politics and ultimately policy outcomes; second, it offers a bridge between the academic communities and the world of practice by offering a design tool.