Administrative Management, Administrative Regulation and the Judicial Process

In discussing problems connected with what is called public administration and administrative law, confusion not infrequently results from a failure to understand at the outset what is meant by the term "administration". A distinguished authority 1 has described administration as essentially the process of translating the general into the particular, and, as one phase of this process, the task of applying abstract policies, principles and rules to specific cases. From this point of view, all government classifies itself into two functions: first, the function of formulating policies, principles and rules, and, secondly, the function of applying them. The first of these two functions is, of course, primarily that of the legislature, although, within certain limits, the function of formulating rules and policies can never be completely divorced from the organ or agency which applies them. Administration as the function of bringing government to bear upon particular people in specific situations is thus as broad as the entire activity of government outside of the legislature. It covers every point where government comes in direct contact with individuals. It covers even the action of the judicial courts, as is shown by the phrase "administration of justice", for the courts themselves are administrative agencies in the sense that through their decisions governmental rules and powers are brought home to particular individuals and applied to affect their persons and properties. At the opposite extreme, administration includes the activities of governmental offices in hiring, promoting and discharging employees. It includes the activity of government in negotiating and contracting with private persons for the purchase of supplies and the construction of public works. Again, the broad field of administration covers the supply by government of services to individuals ranging all the way from the service of recording some paper like a deed or a will, through the supply of public education and unemployment relief, to the sale of water and electricity. All these fields of administration present problems of organization, management, supervision, and audit, involving questions of efficiency, economy, fairness, and justice in the larger sense. They have to do with the operation of government as a going concern-as a