POLITICS &

ADMIN
Dissection of Political
administrative processes
A Presentation by Orlando Jr. C. Agbisit
IV – AB Political Science

Prof. Rolando A. Panaligan – Politics and Administration

Ineffectiveness of constitutional prohibition of special
legislation in the United States

• Special legislation is a legal term of art used in the United States to refer to
legislation that targets an individual or a small, identifiable group for treatment
that does not apply to all the members of a given class.

• Under the United States Constitution, the modern Supreme Court has not
recognized a constitutional prohibition on special legislation.

• State constitutions may, of course, answer questions of individual rights in ways

that are different from the answers found in the federal constitution. However,
these provisions do not answer individual-rights questions. Rather, the history
and text of these provisions reveals that they were adopted to solve a set of
structural problems related to individualized treatment in the legislative process
The Influence of party system in United States
• The United States follows and implore a classic style of Party system in which the
contrasts between these factions are often exaggerated and known among
scholars to be the “two-Party System”.

• Usually only two fairly evenly matched parties may successfully compete for
office in a single-member district, and a third party suffers recurring defeat
unless it can swallow up one of the other parties. Parties do not thrive under the
certainty of defeat. A third party may have a substantial popular following and yet
capture few seats in the representative body.

• Indubitably the broad area of agreement exists among the leading parties. With
two major parties of similar views and of approximately equal strength
competing for control of a government, it is possible for governmental control to
alternate between the parties without shifts in policy so radical as to incite
minorities to resistance.
Political customs in the United States

• The United States has a notable libertarian movement, and historical political
movements in the United States have been shaped by ideologies as varied as
republicanism, populism, separatism, socialism, monarchism, and nationalism.

• Individual citizens are not the only players in U.S. politics. Although individual
citizens are the only ones who can cast votes, special interest groups and
lobbyists may influence elections and law-making with money and other
resources. At times, this influence has grown so noticeable that some have called
into question whether the U.S. is truly a democracy of the people or something
more like an oligarchy of special interest groups. The media also play an
important role in politics by influencing public sentiment and acting as an
information filter.
Development of English Legal System
• The single most distinctive characteristic of the English legal system is its
common law heritage. Which, most of the features popularly associated with
English law and its administration of justice are attributable to the early
development within western Europe of the civil and common law traditions.

• The peculiar development of the common law in England evolved it seems from a
happenstance congruence of the adoption after the Norman conquest by
successive monarchs of indigenous customs as the basis for the administration of
justice.

• Judges were appointed by the king to travel the country and resolve arguments,
assisted by a local jury incorporated by the Normans into workings of royal
courts. The trial assumed a pivotal role in the resolution of disputes.
American administrative System
• The federal bureaucracy basically performs three primary tasks in government:
implementation, administration, and regulation.

• When Congress passes a law, it sets down guidelines to carry out the new policies.
Thus, putting these policies into practice is known as implementation. Often,
policy directives are not clearly defined, and bureaucrats must interpret the
meaning of the law. The bureaucracy often has some flexibility, known as
administrative discretion, in actual implementation.

• The federal bureaucracy makes regulations (the rules by which federal and state
programs operate) through an administrative process known as rule making.
Regulations can be challenged in court, and they are not put into effect until the
legal issues are resolved.
American Political system
• The US Constitution, the supreme law of the land, divides governmental powers between the
national/federal Government and the States, A prime feature of the U.S. Constitution is that it
gives recognition to the principle of popular sovereignty. The Presidential form of Government
with separation of powers between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

• The American Constitution is based on the theory of separation of powers. Likewise, It is simply distributed
the powers : legislative powers were vested in Congress, the executive powers in the President, and the
judicial powers in the Courts.

LEGISLATURE : Legislature in the U.S.A. is called Congress. Power to make laws is vested in the Senate and the
House of Representatives, the two elected Houses of Congress. Congress has both express powers (enumerated in
the Constitution) and implied powers (those necessary and proper to carry out the express powers).

EXECUTIVE : Executive power is vested in the President. The President and the Vice-President are elected
for a term of four years. The President supervises law enforcement, conducts foreign relations, is Commander-in-
Chief of the armed forces, and recommends legislation to Congress. With the approval of the Senate, he appoints
federal judges; ambassadors;
 Advantages of strong parties

• Indeed, Political parties play a vital role in a democracy. A country can only be
considered democratic if its elections are proven to constitute a real competition
between two or among several candidates who may be backed by political parties
or are running independently.

• Some advantages include Political cparties are able to present political

information to the voting population in a manner that is readily understandable,
provide balance through the accommodation of various interests and opinions,
prevent unexpected shifts in political trends that threaten stability in the
government, and most importantly strong parties encourage critical political
participation.
Political Parties in France

• The main "conservative" party is now known as "Les Républicains" - the Republicans, This is one
of the largest political parties in France, and has achieved conscious status unlike Britain's
Conservatives and America's Republicans, it is a party that encompasses a fairly broad range of
political opinion, including traditional conservatives, social liberals, and also a Thatcherite or
neo-conservative right.

• The main party of the left is the Parti Socialiste, or Socialist Party, the Parti Socialiste was very
much a socialist party, believing in nationalisations, a strong welfare state, and participative
democracy.

• The other main party of the centre left is Europe Ecologie Les Verts, or the Green Party, As a
green party, EELV prioritizes and emphasizes environmental issues: renewable forms of energy,
promotion of public transportation, imposition of carbon tax and raising progressive income tax,
likewise, EELV have long promoted gender equality in politics.
The boss in German system

• The Federal Republic of Germany is structured as a federal state and parliamentary democracy,
the Basic Law stipulates that all government powers emanate from the people. The people assigns
these powers to the parliaments (Bundestag and State parliaments) for the duration of a
legislative period.

• The authority of state is subdivided into legislative powers (the legislative), executive powers (the
executive) and the powers responsible for the administration of justice (the judiciary).

• In terms of protocol, the Federal President is Germany’s most senior representative. The
President of the Bundestag is, in terms of protocol, the second most senior. The proxy for the
Federal President is the President of the Bundesrat – an office held on an annual basis in rotation
by the minister president of the one of the 16 federal states. The office with the greatest political
power is that of the Federal Chancellor. The President of the Federal Constitutional Court is
likewise one of the country’s high representatives.
Origin of English Cabinet system

• The modern Cabinet evolved from one of the earliest forms of government in
Britain which has its roots in the 11th century - the Privy Council. The Privy
Council was a group of prominent men, mainly from the church, aristocracy or
gentry who offered advice to the monarch.

• Charles II re-established the Privy Council on the restoration of the monarchy in

1660, but relied on a smaller informal committee for advice, However, the 1701
Act of Settlement, by granting the crown to Sophia of Hanover and her Protestant
heirs, made the monarch's small informal committee of advisors even more
important due to the fact that George I, the first Hanoverian king under the terms
of the Act of Settlement, could not speak English. The monarch's small
committee of advisors therefore gained more executive power and importance at
his expense.
Relations of corporations and Political Parties

• Traditionally, companies stay out of political disputes, avoiding active

engagement in any such debates. But in recent years their willingness to engage
has increased, Eurosceptics, populists, and parties are celebrating successes from
the far left and far right. This populism is often accompanied by scepticism
intended to appeal to globalization's losers. With corruption scandals and the
dwindling loyalty to traditional parties, anti-establishment slogans raise the
potential of attracting new voters.
• Corporations and the like are powerful organisations whose properties do not
correspond to those of individual actors in a democracy. This difference in power
could lead to the assessment that corporate influence is a threat to democratic
processes. Therefore, the question is not whether corporations should engage in
politics, but what the nature and purpose of such engagements is.
Schools of thought to the study of Politics and
Administration: Separation School of thought

• The separation scholars tend to view the governmental realm as divided into two
zones, that is, politics and administration. They take a functional approach to
analyze the relationship between politics and administration, The function of
politics is to provide guidance, or what Wilson (1887) said, “setting the task for
administration.” The function of public administration, on the other hand, is to
provide neutral competence to the policy process.

• On the other side of the policy process stands public administration whose
primary responsibility is to enable public policies into concrete implementation
in conformity with legislative intentions and instructions.
 Schools of thought to the study of Politics and
Administration: Political School of thought

• The political school takes administrative discretion as a point of departure to

rationalize the policy role of public administrators. Of many reasons, vague and
ambiguous legislations, lack of technical knowledge and resources available to
elected officials, and difficulties in monitoring and controlling bureaucratic
behavior are a few used to signify the critical role of public administrators in the
policy process

• From a normative standpoint, the political school advocates that public

administrators should not confine their domain to mere implementation of policies,
but expand their role to include policy advocacy and formulation
 Schools of thought to the study of Politics and
Administration: Interaction School of thought

• The interaction school acknowledges the differences between politics and

administration in a number of ways such as logical and psychological differences
between politics and administration, or dissimilarities in the perspectives, values,
and formal positions of elected and administrative officials

• the interaction school supports overlapping roles, reciprocal influence, and mutual
deference between elected and administrative officials
 Approaches to the study of Politics-administration
relationship : Historical Approach
• History has been so generous to public administration scholars in offering help to
uncover the meaning of important concepts. Since every concept is born out of a
political and social context, it, then, does make sense to closely examine the
historical origins of concepts and attempt to discover incomplete understandings,
misinterpretations, or even deliberate distortions. Public administration scholars'
study prominent figures or important political/social events as potential sources of
insight on the role of public administration in the political process.

• The founders assumed the politics-administration dichotomy both as a self-evident

truth and as a desirable goal; administration was perceived as a self-contained
world of its own, with its own separate values, rules, and methods.
 Approaches to the study of Politics-administration
relationship : Conceptual Approach

• Conceptualizations offer unique ways of understanding the phenomena, and

provide foundations upon which further research can be conducted.
Conceptualization efforts have flowed in three strands: public administrator as the
unit of analysis, the politics-administration distinctions, and the whole political
system as the unit of analysis.

• The politics-administration dichotomy is a particular conceptualization of politics-

administration relationship resting on the assumption that each function works
best as an independent variable, and capable of being improved in isolation without
endangering or interfering with the other side
 Approaches to the study of Politics-administration
relationship : Empirical Approach
• The politics-administration dichotomy is a particular conceptualization of politics-
administration relationship resting on the assumption that each function works
best as an independent variable, and capable of being improved in isolation without
endangering or interfering with the other side.

• In summary, public administration scholars significantly benefited from empirical

approach to the study of politics-administration relationship. It is clear that
empirical research produced important findings and insights that subsequently
were used to provide support to positions by the proponents of the three schools.
However, the focus of much empirical research remained rather narrow; rarely did
public administration scholars specify and test comprehensive models.