Questioning the Constitutional Order: A Comparison of the French and the U.S. Politics-Administration Dichotomy Controversies After World War II

Rosser, Christian; Mavrot, Céline (2016). Questioning the Constitutional Order: A Comparison of the French and the U.S. Politics-Administration Dichotomy Controversies After World War II. The American review of public administration, 47(7), pp. 737-751. Sage 10.1177/0275074016661629

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By comparing the French and the U.S. controversies on the appropriate position of public administration within the constitutional order of the state after World War II, this article aims to contribute to the historical clarification of the politics–administration dichotomy as one of the key ideas of administrative research and theory. The article underscores that the same phenomenon—the rejection of the dichotomy—has led to different conclusions among administrative scholars on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States, the dichotomy was rejected in favor of a reinforcement of the legislature and the judiciary as well as a more representative administration to preserve the plurality of interests of American society. In contrast, the French rejection was aimed toward strengthening the executive and the administrative elite as guardians of the general interest. The article illustrates how ideas and values about public administration change according to different spatiotemporal contexts. If these contexts are disregarded, understanding remains fragmentary at best, if not misleading

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	11 Centers of Competence > KPM Center for Public Management
UniBE Contributor:	Rosser, Christian, Mavrot, Céline Hélène Jeanne
Subjects:	300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 350 Public administration & military science
ISSN:	0275-0740
Publisher:	Sage
Language:	English
Submitter:	Céline Mavrot
Date Deposited:	25 Aug 2016 17:49
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:57
Publisher DOI:	10.1177/0275074016661629
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/86227