The Administrative State is Dwight Waldo's classic public administration text based on a dissertation written at Yale University. In the book, Waldo argues that democratic states are underpinned by professional and political bureaucracies and that scientific management and efficiency is not the core idea of government bureaucracy, but rather it is service to the public
The book posits that an "administrative state" contains a tension between democracy and bureaucracy that obliges career public servants to protect democratic principles.
Waldo's position is that the political versus administrative dichotomy is false , that public servants hold political positions that require more than the mere implementation of policy set by elected officials. Rather, they must negotiate between efficient, scientific management and the demands for due process and public access to government.
etc
My long career supports this notation that the Administrative State as some
evil institution, is false... 'WE' support/supported democracy... we did not thwart our Constitution.
Do 'we' always need to remain awake and keep our 'eye' on the doings of the bureaucracy and the executive branch?
>>> YES <<<
And thus 'we' have in our Constitution separation of powers; legislative-executive-judicial.
Do any or each of these ever
cross the line?
>>> YES <<<
And they are regularly, throughout our US history, called back into line (one might think of the executive power of the Nixon administration curtailed).
Or... we are doomed by the very government we created....
....which leaves us with what?
Authoritarian rule...
Brilliant solution.