Public Administration and Private Interest

PUBLIC administrators at every level operate in an atmosphere generated by special interest groups. In fact, in the Federal Government, where many policy decisions have been delegated by law to the administrators, much of the business of public administration consists of reconciii.lg the competing demands of these pressure groups in what may be conceived to be the public interest. In a society such as ours it is inevitable that the great majority of these groups which have found the climate of Washington so favorable to their growth represent private business. Increasingly, however, government bureaus, government employees, political partisans, and labor groups are represented. It is unavoidable that some policy decisions of administrators shall favor one group as against another. In many cases the question as to which group shall be favored hinges on the specific facts and pressures brought to bear upon the administrator charged with the decision. Or to put it another way, some of the pressures which might be centered upon a particular point are not brought to bear, chiefly because there are no vehicles for their expression. In this category are the interests of such large unorganized groups as

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