politics-administration dichotomy
...ittaker (1995), no reputable scholar of public administration and public policy would be prepared today to defend the politics-administration dichotomy, at least in its pristine form. The fallacy and inoperative view of the traditional view was proposed by former Clerk of the Privy Council, Gordon Robertson, who stated, “I can hardly claim to be capable of complete objectivity. It would be easier to achieve such detachment if I could shelter behind the dictum so solemnly delivered from editorial pages and professional podia that politicians and not civil servants, make policy and civil servants, not politicians, apply it. It unfortunate that so clear and helpful a distinction should have little truth about it” (Reference). During the time of the theory’s inception in the 19th century, the old view of government consisted of a “command and control” style of governing the bureaucracy, to ensure that the administration functioning of government was being conducted with efficiency and effectiveness, while maintaining political accountability. Hence, the dichotomy was created to establish the need of separate entities and divisions between the two realms, which often showed cracks considering the fact that often the divisions did intertwine through various actions and roles. Bureaucrats not only implement policies, but are key to many other actions behind the scenes such as policy formulation. Bureaucrats are political in nature and use their power to achieve their own set of goals such as income (promotion), power (size of bureaucracy) and professional and client norms (reference). Therefore, the conflict, which occurs within the cabinet is a reflection of bureaucratic politics. Hence, even though this seemed to show the many inadequacies of the dichotomy, it is often referred to by many others to shape the structure of the bureaucracy and the norms of behaviour associated with it. This eventually leads to the question of the new defining role of the public bureaucracy and whether the structures and norms of the dichotomy should be ab...