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Woodrow Wilson's "The Study of Administration"
Around 26 years before his presidency Woodrow Wilson publishes the article "The Study of Administration" starting with the idea that is the responsibility of a administration to see what it can do successfully, properly and efficiently. While public admin was being taught before hand this article sparked the larger conversation of should it be it's own field. -
Frank J. Goodnow's Politics and Administration
This article set the idea that "government has two distinct functions" which were politics and administration. Politics "has to do with policies or expressions of the state will" whereas Administration "has to do with the execution of these policies" This created the politics/administration dichotomy. -
The Principles of Scientific Management
Frederick Taylor's work argued that "scientific analysis would lead to the best way to carry out an operation" This started the efficiency pillar in my opinion of public administration. -
Introduction to the study of public administration
Leonard D White's textbook was the first one devoted to specifically public administration and brought the idea that the mission of public administration is economy and efficiency. -
Notes on the theory of organization
Luther Gulick coins the terms POSDCORB which stands for Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Co-ordinating, Reporting and Budgeting and this term was important as it helped the brownlow committee and gave a classic view of how public organizations should operate. -
Reorganization Act of 1939
In efforts to push efficiency President Roosevelt passed this Act to reorganize the executive branch. This act had profound impact of public administration as it was the first major planned reorganization of the branch. It was done by the Brownlow Committee which featured many famous political scientists like Louis Brownlow, Charles Merriam, and Luther Gulick. -
ASPA (American Society for Public Administration) is formed
This membership association was formed following the growing concerns over how federal agencies were being managed. This group establish NAPA as well later on in the late 1960's. -
Post World War II
The wartime from my understand and even some post wartime was a general good time for public administration and the public was happy with the government post war mostly due to the successful effort and reconstruction after the war. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This Act outlawed the discrimination of people based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin and was a huge step towards some goals public admin sets out to accomplish. -
Formation of the National Academy of Public Administration
Formed to further the academic side of public administration and address challenging issues in the realm of Public Administration. Helping define pillars of values for administrators to follow like the four E's and updating those values and following up with academic discussions on how administrators should operate. -
Minnowbrook Conference is formed
Minnowbrook conference was a response to the anger and unrest towards the government in the late 60's and discuss public administration issues. Inspired new waves from political science departments to form a new kind of "public administration" that brought social equity to be a core value. -
Equal Employment Opportunity Act
This act was enacted in 1972 to promote eqaulity amongst people for the opportunities of employment. -
Civil Service Reform Act
This act aimed to improve flexibility withing government agencies and protect employees from not fair or unwarranted practices. -
New Public Management Theory Introduced
This was a new approach that gained popularity in the UK and Australia in the early 1980's that introduced some more freedoms to public agencies in how they deliver services and pushed the thought process of efficiency, effectiveness, costs and use of outsourcing to private sector. It gained popularity in the US in the 1990's and since then we have seen public administration develop more and more. -
Americans With Disabilities Act
This provides protection against discrimination amongst people who have disabilities. I also believe this push the understanding of equity amongst public admin. -
Civil Rights Act of 1991
This was to reform the civil rights act of 1964 to include to paying for damages in case intentional employment discrimination and to strengthen civil rights and make it more inclusive.