An Appraisal of the Hoover Commission Approach to Administrative Reorganization in the National Government

r l HE LATEST approach to national administrative reorganization apT pears to continue the doctrinaire thinking that, despite considerable criticism, has characterized what is called public administration for the last half-century. The primary article of faith in this tradition seems to be the assumption that good government is essentially good administration, and that both can be approached, if not assured, by concentrating power and authority, with staff services for their implementation, in the hands of the Chief Executive. A variation on this theme is provided by the fact that the Hoover Commission, unlike the President's Committee on Administrative Management (1937), is not overly exercised by any threat to presidential powers implied in the existence of independent regulatory commissions. On the contrary, the Commission is inclined to let the headless fourth branch exist, provided the chairman of each is vested with administrative powers for agency housekeeping. In view of the Commission finding that nine regulatory commissions employ a mere twelve thousand persons, with a total annual charge on the taxpayers of fifty-seven million dollars for regulatory services, this disposition of the 1937 cause celebre appears quiet and dignified.' Fiftyseven million dollars' worth of quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial power is, after all, a small item compared with forty-odd billions' worth of executive agencies. To be sure, the scope of inquiry and decision was circumscribed by the statute creating the Commission

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• Organizing Political Life

  Open Access•James G March, Johan P Olson•American Political Science Review•1983

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• Policy and Administration

  Paul H Appleby•Policy and Administration•1949

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