The Principles of the Administrative Law of the United States

Book excerpt: THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN "POLITICS" AND "ADMINISTRATION" According to Goodnow, politics is concerned with policy and other expressions of state will. Administration is concerned with the faithful execution of enacted legislation. He observes that administration has a tendency to overstep this boundary and concedes that politics must therefore monitor administration to keep it in line with the state's will. Reprint of first edition. "From both the legal and historical standpoint the book contains many things that are richly suggestive. There is very little in our legal or political literature so penetrating as for example the exposition of the effects of confinement of the principle of separation of powers to the central government. (...) It is not written for the legal profession directly, but to those lawyers who seek more than a working tool in their profession, a true appraisement of the administrative law, it will appeal. The writing of such a work moreover is a signal public service." --6 Columbia Law Review (1906) 133 While a member of the Columbia faculty, FRANK J. GOODNOW [1859-1939] was the first individual in the United States to hold a professorship in administrative law. He became the first president of the American Political Science Association, which offers an annual award in his name, and was president of Johns Hopkins University from 1915-1929.