REVIEW ON WOODROW WILSON’S THE STUDY OF

ADMINISTRATION

Woodrow Wilson in his work, ‘The Study of Administration’

defines administration as government in action and emphasized more
on the Executive branch of government to have been the organ to take
administrative functions. In his commencement, he exhibited that
government in historian era focused much on the constitution and it
reforms, nature of state, sovereignty and the high end expected from it
instead of the study of administration. For which reason he gave that,
during that era, governance was simple due to the handful population
size and less or no meddlesome public opinion.

Wilson posited that the roles and functions of government grow as

time approaches modernization, as a result the science of administration
must be studied and implemented to put America in a convenient state as
far as governance is concerned. Administration he said originated from
Europe and was adopted by France and Germany which added up to the
swift development experience in their governane1. He presumed that
America would experience high efficiency an administration if civil
servants are perfected in terms of organization, appointment, personnel
and trained formally to be more indispensable.

Again, Wilson in his political experience alerted the fact that the
field of administration is a field of business, thus, administration differs
totally from politics. Politics end when state officials take hold of their
positions and there administration starts. Wilson sees administration as a
study to rescue executive methods of confusion and costliness and set
them upon foundation laid deep in stable principles. He states that
though politics and administration are questioned in the constitution but
administrative questions are different from political questions in the
sense that political factors must not meddle in administration.

Wilson concluded that America must imitate the foreign

administration methods. He urges that, adopting foreign style of
administration does not mean the total administrative style is being
exercised, but it would be altered to Americans’ local perspective.
Another important view of Wilson is the use of public opinion to shape
governmental actions. In his work, he stated that the public must be
educated politically to influence governmental actions.

In my opinion, Administration as defined by Wilson as

government in action is limited as Wilson posited that only the executive
is in charge of administration but there are also external bodies that
partake in administration. Other organs of government do participate in
states’ administration. The judiciary adjudication of cases and
interpretation of laws cannot be left out from administration. Also, the
law making function of the legislature and the other minor functions
such as vetting the executive personnel are included in administration.
 Moreover, some factors were left out in Wilson’s article.
Implementation by executives is not the sole function of the executive in
administration but factors such as designing and formulating policies
and programs, mobilization of resources, generation and spending of
revenue and critical planning as a result of scarce resources are all
categorized under administration.

In conclusion, generally, Wilson succeeded in segregating

administration from politics, provided tangible reasons why public
opinion must be recognized in administration and their contributions in
states’ administration as well as how they must be educated to influence
government policies but in the same case the other factors mentioned
above must not be left out, because they are principal parameters apart
from implementation and therefore must be recognized as essential and
key concepts for improving the administration of a state.
Reference

Wilson, (1887), The study of Administration. Political Science Quarterly,

Vol 2.