What is the relationship between politics and admistration?

Answer 1

There are two definitions for each entity one must understand in order to comprehend this. When researching this I recommend that one avoid definitions that say things like, politics is defined as the art of political maneuvers or that administration is the practice of managing the administration of things. Here are the two definitions for each that I have found most useful over the years.

Politics is the process by which the distribution of resources is decided. and

use of intrigue or strategy in obtaining any position of power or control, as in business, university, etc.

Administration is the process by which allocated resources are distributed. and

the management of any office, business, or organization; direction.

In lay terms: How things are run and the relationship to what they run with.

So as an example:

Congress decides to give $300,000,000 to fix up the ailing public Golf courses in suburban neighborhoods by cutting funding for schools and food subsidies in low income neighborhoods (real example from CA by the way). This is politics. Congress or some other entity decided via their process where the money would get spent. This money goes to the parks and rec or public works department for that area.

Now within that area the parks and rec, or public works department uses that money (administers it to various projects) to actually accomplish the task it was meant for. However it is politics that decides who is running the department that administers funds, (and politics decided) that it would be this department that got the funds in the first place, and due to political pressures from higher levels and constituents the specifics of how the money is used within a specific project.

Now if the money was spent well in that neighborhood it attracts more voters to the area, or wins over existing voters. So politics affects the administration of things, and in turn (at least in theory) proper administration produces rewards such as power and affluence back to the political machine from whence it came. The project got money, things got done, the politicians look good, they in turn provide more money to the administrators next year. At least that's the way things are intended to work.

In reality there is little to no guarantee that the results administrations produce with the resources afforded to them via politics will impact the political landscape accurately, or at all. Bear in mind the definition of politics that dealt with using intrigue to obtain a position of power.

A major issue with this is that when a project receives money or other resources it appears to be improving, whereas the project that received less money or resources appears to be failing. This means that the project which does not need additional resources is more likely to be afforded those resources from the political body, while the project that is already desperate and in decline will be passed over by political process.

So at times and in certain places the relationship between politics and administration may be absolute, fair and rational. Other times and places it may seem to be a total violation of anything sane or rational. This depends on several things.

First it depends on what the idea of rational or fair is to the constitutions of the political and administrative body might be.

It also depends on the relationship between the administrators and the politicians, as well as the bureaucratic machinery of either party(i.e. how well the two match up and work together, how much integrity each has etc.)

Again in lay terms: How things are run and the relationship to what they run with.

Answer 2

Social or public policy is highly political and is created based upon a mixture of interest group activity, public opinion, and values held by politicians at the time of the making of public policy. Administration on the other hand is made to not be political because of the fact that bureaucratic administration is strictly the execution of laws and policy that has already been enacted. Political Science is the study of both of these areas.