Supporters of Bureaucratic Government: Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt Scaffolded
What is bureaucracy? Scaffolded primary sources that show how two former presidents supported the idea of the large federal bureaucracy.
Primary Source A: Supporters of Bureaucratic Government: Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt Scaffolded
- I can comprehend the original purpose and design of the federal bureaucracy
- I can assess how well the bureaucracy aligns with constitutional principles
Woodrow Wilson, “The Study of Administration” (1887)
Building Context
Before becoming president, Woodrow Wilson was an influential college professor and president of Princeton University. His research and writing during that time focused on government administration. Wilson developed theories that American society became too large and complex for the political framework established by the Founders in the Constitution. In his 1887 article “The Study of Administration,” Wilson argued in favor of a system with a large bureaucracy of administrators who would have a substantial role in governing the country. He thought congressional politics was too messy and that society should be managed by experts.
Caption: Woodrow Wilson
|
Document Text |
Annotations |
|
The weightier debates of constitutional principle are even yet by no means concluded; but they are no longer of more immediate practical moment than questions of administration. It is getting to be harder to run a constitution than to frame one… There is scarcely a single duty of government which was once simple which is not now complex… |
|
|
Administration is everywhere putting its hands to new undertakings. The utility, cheapness, and success of the government’s postal service, for instance, point towards the early establishment of governmental control of the telegraph system. Or, even if our government is not to follow the lead of the governments of Europe in buying or building both telegraph and railroad lines, no one can doubt that in some way it must make itself master of masterful corporations…The idea of the state and the consequent ideal of its duty are undergoing noteworthy change…Seeing every day new things which the state ought to do, the next thing is to see clearly how it ought to do them… |
|
|
Most important to be observed is the truth already so much and so fortunately insisted upon by our civil service reformers; namely, that administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics. Administrative questions are not political questions… |
|
|
And let me say that large powers and unhampered discretion seem to me the indispensable conditions of responsibility. Public attention must be easily directed, in each case of good or bad administration, to just the man deserving of praise or blame. There is no danger in power, if only it be not irresponsible. If it be divided, dealt out in shares to many, it is obscured; and if it be obscured, it is made irresponsible… |
Comprehension Questions
- What reason does Wilson give for why the question of bureaucracy has become so important?
- What are some examples that Wilson gives of areas where the administration is already operating? Does he appear to have a clear limit on the powers of the bureaucracy?
Analysis Questions
- Some call the modern federal bureaucracy the “fourth branch” of government due to its size and scope of power. How does this concept relate to Wilson’s call for bureaucratic authority in the American system of government?
- Wilson envisioned a system of bureaucrats who would operate above political, partisan squabbling. Do you believe this type of system is possible? Why or why not?
- How does Wilson’s argument in favor of administrative officials holding “unhampered discretion” stand in contrast to the constitutional system of checks and balances? Does this show that Wilson and the Founders had different views of government power? Why or why not?
Franklin Roosevelt, Commonwealth Club Address (1932)
Building Context
In 1929, the worst financial crisis in American history–the Great Depression–began as the stock market crashed, and unemployment rates skyrocketed. New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt emerged as the Democratic presidential candidate in the 1932 election, running on a platform called the New Deal that would greatly increase the power of the national government over the economy. The purpose of the New Deal was to improve economic conditions and create fundamental reforms in the economy. In this speech, Roosevelt argues why he believes these changes are necessary for contemporary society.
Caption: Franklin D. Roosevelt
|
Document Text |
Annotations |
|
The issue of government has always been whether individual men and women will have to serve some system of government of economics, or whether a system of government and economics exists to serve individual men and women. This question has persistently dominated the discussion of government for many generations… |
|
|
In retrospect we can now see that the turn of the tide came with the turn of the century…Clear-sighted men saw with fear the danger that opportunity would no longer be equal; that the growing corporation, like the feudal baron of old, might threaten the economic freedom of individuals to earn a living… |
|
|
[President] Woodrow Wilson, elected in 1912…saw, in the highly centralized economic system, the despot of the twentieth century, on whom great masses of individuals relied for their safety and their livelihood, and whose irresponsibility and greed (if it were not controlled) would reduce them to starvation and penury… |
|
|
Put plainly, we are steering a steady course toward economic oligarchy, if we are not there already…A mere builder of more industrial plants, a creator of more railroad systems, and organizer of more corporations, is as likely to be a danger as a help. The day of the great promoter or the financial Titan, to whom we granted anything if only he would build, or develop, is over. Our task now is not discovery or exploitation of natural resources, or necessarily producing more goods. It is the soberer, less dramatic business of administering resources and plants already in hand, of seeking to reestablish foreign markets for our surplus production, of meeting the problem of under consumption, of adjusting production to consumption, of distributing wealth and products more equitably, of adapting existing economic organizations to the service of the people. The day of enlightened administration has come… |
|
|
In other times we dealt with the problem of an unduly ambitious central government by modifying it gradually into a constitutional democratic government. So today we are modifying and controlling our economic units. As I see it, the task of government in its relation to business is to assist the development of an economic declaration of rights, an economic constitutional order. This is the common task of statesman and business man. It is the minimum requirement of a more permanently safe order of things… |
|
Document Text |
Annotations |
|
The Declaration of Independence discusses the problem of Government in terms of a contract. Government is a relation of give and take, a contract, perforce, if we would follow the thinking out of which it grew. Under such a contract rulers were accorded power, and the people consented to that power on consideration that they be accorded certain rights. The task of statesmanship has always been the redefinition of these rights in terms of a changing and growing social order. New conditions impose new requirements upon Government and those who conduct Government… |
|
|
I feel that we are coming to a view through the drift of our legislation and our public thinking in the past quarter century that private economic power is, to enlarge an old phrase, a public trust as well. I hold that continued enjoyment of that power by any individual or group must depend upon the fulfillment of that trust… |
Comprehension Questions
- Explain what Roosevelt means when he says that President Wilson “knew that the new power was financial.” Does Roosevelt agree?
- What does Roosevelt say is the new task at hand for government?
Analysis Questions
- Roosevelt uses the term “enlightened administration” in his speech. Explain how “enlightened administration” relates to the idea of a federal bureaucracy and experts managing the economy and society.
- Do you believe that an “economic declaration of rights” should exist? If so, who should create and enforce it?
- How does Roosevelt’s idea of changing conceptions of rights compare to the Founders’ conception of natural rights?