Harmonizing Government Organization with the Political Tradition

Abstract

Our concern in this conference is how to bring about a reorganization of the federal government that will be compatible with American values, particularly, but not exclusively, American political values. This paper will not attempt to lay out a line of specific proposals to that end. That would be presumptuous on my part. Experts in government and management are working on specifics, individually and collectively. It may be, however, that a few words on the hidden perspectives and assumptions underlying contemporary American thought on the subject would be in order. Those perspectives and assumptions rest upon modern extensions of the three original theories regarding the origins of the polity, extensions that seek to adapt those theories to a democratic age and apply them to the details of governing. While the theories themselves require sophisticated treatment, as common currency they can be designated by their code words: federalism, Jacobinism, and managerialism. If those code words suggest that each has an ideological as well as a practical dimension, there is much truth in that suggestion.