Building a New American State
The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877–1920

This book is about governmental change in America.

Stephen Skowronek (Author)

9780521288651, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 June 1982

400 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm, 0.586 kg

This book is about governmental change in America. It examines the reconstruction of institutional power relationships that had to be negotiated among the courts, the parties, the president, the Congress and the states in order to accommodate the expansion of national administrative capacities around the turn of the twentieth century. Stephen Skowronek argues that new institutional forms and procedures do not arise reflexively or automatically in response to environmental demands on government, but must be extorted through political and institutional struggles that are rooted in and mediated by pre-established governing arrangements. As the first full-scale historical treatment of the development of American national administration, this book will provide a useful textbook for public administration courses.

Preface
Part I. The State-Building Problem in American Political Development: 1. The new state and American political development
2. The early American state
Part II. State Building as Patchwork, 1877–1900: 3. Patching civil administration: the limits of reform in the party state
4. Patching the army: the limits of provincial virtue
5. Patching business regulation: the failure of administered capitalism
Part III. State Building as Reconstitution, 1900–1920: 6. Reconstituting civil administration: economy, efficiency, and the repoliticization of American bureaucracy
7. Reconstituting the army: professionalism, nationalism, and the illusion of corporatism
8. Reconstituting business regulation: administrative justice, scientific management, and the triumph of the independent commission
Epilogue
Notes
Selected bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Regional government [JPR], Central government [JPQ]