The Traditional Model of Public Administration

Abstract

What is here called the traditional model of public administration was, in its day, a major reform movement. Instead of being carried out by amateurs bound by personal loyalties to leaders, as it was earlier, the task of administering public organisations became a professional occupation, one which would be most efficiently carried out by a distinct merit-based public service. Serving the public was a high calling, one that required the best people available to form a distinct administrative elite and to act always according to the law and precedents established. Politicians might come and go but, while the apparatus of government was in the hands of permanent officials, the transition between regimes could be handled smoothly.