The Novice Administrative State: The Function of Regulatory Commissions in the Progressive Era

Introduction: The Pasts & Futures of the Administrative State

Daedalus ◽

10.1162/daed_e_01856 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 150 (3) ◽

pp. 5-16

Author(s):

Mark Tushnet

Keyword(s):

Progressive Era ◽

Citizen Participation ◽

Administrative State ◽

Introductory Essay ◽

Traditional Account ◽

Administrative Agencies ◽

The Future

Abstract To understand contemporary arguments about deconstructing and reconstructing the modern administrative state, we have to understand where that state came from, and what its futures might be. This introductory essay describes the traditional account of the modern administrative state's origins in the Progressive era and more recent revisionist accounts that give it a longer history. The competing accounts have different implications for our thinking about the administrative state's constitutional status, the former raising some questions about constitutionality, the latter alleviating such concerns. This introduction then draws upon the essays in this issue to describe three options for the future. Deconstructing the administrative state without adopting a program of across-the-board deregulation would entail more regulation by the legislature itself and would insist that Congress give clear instructions to administrative agencies. Tweaking would modify existing doctrine around the edges without making large changes. Reconstruction might involve adopting ever more flexible modes of regulation, including direct citizen participation in making and enforcing regulation.

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Bureaucracy and the Administrative State

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199697915.013.30 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Colin D. Moore

Keyword(s):

Social Policy ◽

Progressive Era ◽

Political Development ◽

Civil Service ◽

American Political Development ◽

Administrative State ◽

The Past ◽

The Us ◽

Post War ◽

American State

Over the past thirty years, scholars in the field of American Political Development (APD) have made major advances in understanding the structure and development of the US administrative state. This chapter considers the exceptionalism of the American state and reviews dominant theories advanced by scholars of APD to explain change in American bureaucracy. It also examines how the unique development of this state influences American social policy and contributes to racial and economic inequality. Evidence is drawn from some of the watershed moments of administrative state development, such as Jacksonian spoils system, the creation of a modern civil service during the Progressive Era, and the remarkable expansion of American state capacity in the post-war period. It argues that such research reveals how the liberal American state exercises power and why it developed as such a unique and fragmented set of institutions.

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THE AMBIGUITY OF EXPERTISE IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE

Social Philosophy and Policy ◽

10.1017/s0265052521000236 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 38 (1) ◽

pp. 85-108

Author(s):

Joseph Postell

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Progressive Era ◽

American Politics ◽

First Century ◽

Scientific Management ◽

Administrative State ◽

Twenty First Century

AbstractWhen the modern administrative state emerged in America during the Progressive Era, at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was typically grounded on the premise that administrative officials are experts who should be insulated from politics. This theory, combined with emerging ideas of scientific management, contributed to the intellectual justification for the administrative state. However, progressives never fully reconciled the tension between this theory and the democratic nature of American politics. Because of this ambiguity and tension in the progressives’ theory of expertise, the politics/administration dichotomy was abandoned shortly after the administrative state was constructed. The place of expertise in the administrative state is still ambiguous, even in the twenty-first century.

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