Back in the 1880’s, the then president of the U.S., Mr. Woodrow Wilson, stated that Public administration is a field completely independent from the Constitutional context (David, 2003). With time, it has become clear that the two fields cannot be separated. These two entities have to be fused into one to have an effective public administrative system.
In this chapter, David has listed a number of events initiated by various leaders of the U.S. that were done without following the set constitution. These did not yield results as was expected. For instance, in 1995, the then president, Mr. Bill Clinton, issued an order to bar sales from companies that replaced striking employees with permanent ones (David, 2003). This was against the constitutional law, as well as an act that protected the rights of employees. Bill, however, stood his ground on the basis that his position empowered him to override labor laws.
The cases were evidence enough that leaders used the powers bestowed on them to manipulate the law. They felt that they had the power to make new policies in disregard of what was already stated in the constitution. Most of these new policies were pushed into becoming laws, resulting to some sort of confusion in the administration system (David, 2003).
In the very chapter, David has explained four key aspects of public administration. One is the separation of powers. This is where the administrative system is split into three groups which are the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. The second aspect is federalism which is all about the relationship between the state and its federal leadership. The third aspect is the rights and privileges of individuals and finally, public administrators (David, 2003).
References
David Rosenbloom. (2003). Administrative Law for Public Managers. Colorado: Westview Press
