Public Administration - Research Paper Example

The Hamiltonian School of thought holds that power rests with the executive. A perfect public administration according to Hamilton was one that was developed under a dynamic centralized executive control system. He frequently opposed state power in favor of centralized federal power (Milakovich and Gordon 441). The Jeffersonian Tradition of Public Administration was mainly developed during Thomas Jefferson’s latter years. This tradition dwells on the effects of political processes on government administration as well as the importance of connecting contemporary public policy with republican principles that are found in the constitution.

Jefferson once stated that he knew of “no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves…every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone” (Farmer 76). To Jefferson, power resides in the people being governed and not to those doing the governing. The Madisonian school of thought holds that the best public administration practices are to be achieved through the separation of powers between national government and the state. To Madison power should be shared between the central and federal governments.

The Madisonian Tradition of Public Administration focuses on the need of proper representation under a constitutional institution is the basis that should be used to share power (Warwick and Reed 156). Woodrow Wilson referred Public Administration to as a “government in action”. He also added that public administration was the executive, the operative and “the most visible side of government”. The Wilsonian Public Administration tradition emphasizes that public administration should function separately from the interests of the leaders.

This school of thought says that power should be left in the hands of an active central government (Farmer 27). Public administration has greatly evolved over the years. The first