The Just Official By Leonard D. White, University of Chicago PRINGIPES D’ ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE, by Cuantes JEAN Bonnin. Troisitme Edition. 3 Volumes. Paris, Chez Renaudiére, 1812, Vol. 1, pp. xliv, 497 plus (last pages torn out of copy); Vol. II, pp. 374; Vol. III, pp. 312. (First edition, Paris, i809, 1 vol.) HE distinction of inventing the title which W. F. Willoughby was to make known to. Americans in 1927, “Principles of Public Ad- ministration,” seems to belong to an obscure French author, a contemporary and admirer of Napoleon. Charles-Jean Bonnin was born in Paris in 1772. He was apparently fortunate enough to preserve sufficient means through- out the uprisings of the French Revolution to be able to devote himself to a literary career; in his Lettres sur l'éducation (1825) he de- scribed himself as a “publicist.” He was well known to statesmen and public officials of his time and was a life-time friend of Portiez de YOise, director of the school of law at Paris. He took his duties as a publicist seriously; in his Doctrine sociale (1820; 2d ed., 1821) he re- printed letters to the Spanish Cortés, the Con- gress of the United States, the Republic of Haiti, the Parliament of the Two Sicilies, and the Cortés of Portugal. Most of his writing, apart from essays on Montesquieu and Cor- neille, was in the field of public law.? In an un- guarded moment, he published in 1821 a work (Etudes législatives) which brought against him the charge of attacking the religious foun- dation of morality. He was fined three thou- sand francs and imprisoned for thirteen -M. Quérard, La France littéraire, 1 (Par Didot pére et fils, 1827), 411-12.272 months. The urge to write remained, but after his release he published only the Lettres sur Péducation and a collection of verse and prose inspired by his wife, A Madame Bonnin. In 1809, he published a work, De V'impor- tance et de la nécessité d’un code administra- tif, which in its third edition became the Principes d’administration publique. In the preface he declared that he was the first to organize this field of knowledge and politely begged the indulgence of his readers, ‘'so nec- essary in first attempts.” The second and third editions were written at the request of several public officials, so that we may believe the ‘book had a considerable vogue. ‘An unknown book on public administration well over a century old naturally excites one’s curiosity, What did Bonnin understand by public administration? Did he grasp the or- ganizing problems of the modern state in an era when France, powerful as she then was, still could transact her civil affairs with a mere thirty thousand officials and employees—about the number which Mayor Kelly now needs to carry on the business of the city of Chicago? ‘What were his views about the ideal adminis- trator and his role in the community? Bonnin did not write about public adminis- tration in the sense of most American writ- ing from 1920 to 1945. At the same time, he recognized the management problems of a more highly specialized community than his ‘own. He wrote when the state was both om- nipresent and omniscient, but nevertheless Deneficent and regardful of the human ii terests of its citizens. The French official, in Bonnin’s view, was a trustee for the welfare of the persons over whom he was placed; the sense of obligation runs strongly throughout his pages, profoundly reminiscent of a re- markable work describing the role of the Ger- man civil servant more than a century later, written by a liberal-minded official who be- came a victim of Nazi intolerance—Regierungs- prasident Ernst von Harnack, who wrote Die Praxis der Offentlichen Verwaltung. To discharge properly the duty of super- vising the welfare of his subjects, Bonnin gave much importance to an annual tour of inspec- tion by the prefect. His description of the function of this annual inspection is both charmingly medieval and acutely modern. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW One of the most satisfying duties to be fulilled by the prefect, and one of the most useful obligations from the point of view of the public good, is the annual tour of inspection which he should make in the communes of the department, He is then a father visiting his numerous family, who sees for himself its state of prosperity or the causes which hinder it; he is the vigilant eye of the Government to ascertain needs and resources, to view wrongs and abuses and bring them to an end, to hear complaints and to give justice; finally, he is’ the image of the head of the ‘ate speaking to citizens. He ought not, therefore, to neglect any details; he ought to see everything, he ‘ought to listen to everything: he ought to give to ome hope and justice, to make others feel the wrong of their conduct, and’ to anticipate public justice in the mind of perverse men or of a lying oficial. Public works and establishments, sanitary measures, agricul- ture, commerce, industry, taxes, instruction, the progress of the human mind, police, public and pri- vate customs, acts of heroism, discoveries and inven- tions, such are the important matters to which he should turn his attention in these annual tours (IT, 09). ‘There is still one great duty for the administrator in his annual tours, one which he ought to regard as the principal end of his inspection, that is to take ‘are to understand well the public mind of his de- partment. Confidence is the most certain means to encourage public officials and citizens to express them- selves freely and to open their mind to that of the administrator. He ought to teach subordinate officals this truth: that the Government not only wishes people to obey the laws but that it desires even more that citizens like the laws and be satisfied that their good fortune depends upon their faithful execution. He ought to find out from citizens if there are sub- jects of discontent and complaint; he ought to satisfy them promptly if they are well founded, for the at- tachment and affection of citizens to Government depend upon good and prompt justice; or if they are only prejudiced clamors, he ought to give the necessary explanations to demonstrate their injustice. tis by means of friendly comments, and by a com- plete impartiality that he must straighten out the public mind which errors or circumstances leave tem- porarily upset "Thus the administrator carries on in his depart: ment; thus by his presence he gives persons and things a wholesome direction and brings them into conformity with the common good; and thus as the living image of the Prince he participates in the power of Government (11, 215]. Bonnin’s concept of public administration was a broad one, “Administration,” he wrote, “is the science of relationships between so- ciety and individuals and the means of main- taining these relationships through the action of public authority upon petsons and property in every matter which is of interest to the social order.” Like Ernst Freund, Bonnin con- ceived public administration less in terms ofBOOK REVIEWS the inner mechanisms for securing efficient results in an organized hierarchy and more in terms of the impact of public authority on persons: “Administrative science may there- fore be considered either as the knowledge of certain social relationships (theory and analy- sis) or as the application of the rules which govern these relationships in the common in- terest. According to this definition, based in the very nature of things, we see from the first point of view that it is the trend of social action and from the second, the art of putting this action into practice” (Preface, xiv). In his second volume Bonnin prescribed a number of aphorisms which illustrated his idea of public administration. “Administra- tion is a consequence of Government, of which it is a part: it is the Government in action, in detail.” “Public administration is estab- lished to supervise persons and property in their public relations and to secure their co- ordination in the common good. Its character is action; the execution of the laws of general interest is its special function. Society as a whole is the object of its duties and solici- tude.” And to the imperial official who talked much and accomplished less, he observed, “The Government sees the administrator only in the acts which he does, and not in the speeches which he makes to citizens” (II, 273 fl), Conceiving administration as the direction of persons and property in the common good, Bonnin devoted the bulk of his work to the then existing French law which it was the duty of prefects and mayors to enforce. The administrative relationships involving persons included the universal fields of taxation, mili- tary service, and civil status and also such special subjects as farmers, artisans, and mer- chants; schools; public welfare; arrest; and religious cults. Administrative ‘relationships involving property included public works and such private holdings as houses, woods, waters, mines, swamps, and industrial property. Here too the author dealt with the law of expendi- tures and public accounting, the administra- tive courts, and the system of statistics. ‘These are matters of specialist interest. But 2Cf Emst Freund, Administrative Powers over Persons and Property’ (University of Chicago Press, 1928). 273, when Bonnin wrote about the qualities ap- propriate to an administrator, he was on uni- versal ground in time and place. Here the author must be allowed to speak for himself. In vain for the administrator to have all the in- formation which makes a statesman if he does not also possess the qualities of a man of good wil Knowledge, particularly in a public man, has value only to the extent that personal qualities put it in play; for in the exercise of authority one does not continually use what one knows, but the qualities which mark the man of good will are always appro- priate in the exercise of public office. It is these which make power attractive and which leave long in the memory a recollection of the statesman. The more the concept of the public man is joined with that of, the just man, the more completely he commands gen- eral confidence. The administrator, therefore, ought to watch himself with great care in order to be the first of his fellow citizens by reason of his personal qualities as he is already the first by reason of his office, ‘An unalterable justice toward everyone without dis- tinction, moderation in power, a mature firmness which comes from 2 conviction of what is good and not from pride and obstinacy but which directs com- passionate justice, a healthy judgment, sagacity, knowl- edge of men to be used, knowledge of the time, place, Gireumstances, and social convenience, profundity i views, perseverance in the public good, and activity and zeal which nothing repulses, that amenity which, renders authority acceptable without causing it to lose its rights, the capacity to love the good for itself, to do it without seeking praise, to know how to temper the exercise of power with mercy, and to reconcile the dignity of office with pleasant and at- tractive manners; such are the personal qualities which bring affection to the true administrator and which distinguish him from those who see in the exercise of their authority only the power and credit, which are attached to it There is even a special heroism in the adminis- trator, the heroism or constancy which causes him continually to struggle courageously against himself and against opposition which he may experience on the part of citizens in the exercise of his office. At ‘one time he must sacrifice his sentiments, his affec- tions, and individual considerations to the ju which he owes to everyone; at another time he must, be able to repress special interests which too often make claims in their own favor and which he must silence in the face of the public interest; at another time he must be able fearlessly to warn the supreme authority if it exceeds the limits of its power and a fortiori if it could be so blind as to abuse its power: finally, he must frankly make known the needs and demands of those subject to him. He must also be able to repress his own self-satisfaction and his own, pride, which induce public scorn. This heroism is, incessant, and administrative functions are themselves, unending, It is this very heroism which sets the foun- dation for administrative virtues. "Military qual274 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW are necessary only in some circumstances and at some ‘the great man who governs us rightly said, ‘The civil Virtues which characterize the true offical have an endles influence upon the public happiness (11, 258-60}. To get a public service equal to the task which Bonnin saw about him, he thought the study of science to be most important. Indeed, his perfect official had to know all. sciences: “The field is immense, without doubt, but what information ought to be foreign to the man in public life! . . . Ought not everything which interests humanity and the public order to be a part of his continued study, the first of his duties, the most important of his oc- cupations, the most imperious of his obliga- tions?” (Preface, xxiii). Science and knowledge, however, yield in importance to justice, and Bonnin’s final words on the just official are those which best catch the spirit of this ancient work. But science is nothing without integrity and jus- tice. Only the most severe integrity, only the most ‘equable justice, should distinguish the administrator. ‘The public man, inevitably placed between his con- science and his duty, who fails to be just, is the most, ‘cowardly and guilty of men because, stifling in him- self every principle of justice, he exercises the most odious tyranny, that which aficts the citizen in his only refuge, the protection of the laws. Justice is necessary to the man in public life be- ‘cause the power which he has and the authority which he exercises in themselves give him a sufi- ciently great power over men, and because the unjust ‘man is both cowardly and guilty. But with justice and moderation he will have all the qualities which ‘comprise the virtues of the public man and of the citizen (11, 271-72].