The Politics-Administration Dichotomy: Has It Ever And/or Does It Still Matter?

Abstract

The politics-administration dichotomy is a scientific phenomenon. It goes back to basic concepts of state philosophy such as Hegelian organic state theory and embraces core concepts of political theory such as the division of power and input versus output legitimacy. It underlies core ideas of both political science (e.g., the principal-agent model), public administration (e.g., New Public Management), and applied concepts (e.g., evidence-based policy-making). Yet, all scholars who ever worked on the dichotomy agree: it does not exist empirically nor is it uncontested from a theoretical perspective. The Panel invites empirical and theoretical Papers that contribute to the questions of whether it ever existed and if not, why it still matters.