A Short, Ironic History of American National Bureaucracy

Abstract

Modern American bureaucracy can be understood best in terms of its historical development from 1775 to 1932. The history is an ironic one, consisting of seven particular ironies of Revolution, Jacksonian Democracy, Reform, and Representation, and of one grand irony, namely that at almost every critical turn in American bureaucratic history, it was the efforts of elected officials and organized political groups to enhance popular control of government that inadvertently planted the seeds of modern bureaucratic power. Some consequences of this history for modern policy and administrative problems are suggested.