The Statesman: by Sir Henry Taylor

by Henry Taylor, David Lewis Schaefer (Editor), Roberta Rubel Schaefer (Editor)

Overview

Sir Henry Taylor's classic treatise The Statesman, originally published in 1836, is the first modern book to be devoted to the subject of public administration. It has been read and studied by generations for its keen insights into the relationship between public administrators and elected officials in a democracy. It has also been appreciated for its wit. The present volume is the first twentieth-century edition to be based on the revised and expanded text that Taylor published in 1878 as part of his Collected Works. It is also the first edition to be fully annotated.

The lengthy editors' introduction to this volume emphasizes the relevance of Taylor's thought to the fundamental issues of public administration in the contemporary United States. The editors demonstrate the superiority of Taylor's understanding of the relationship between politics and administration to the widely accepted model of that relation that derives from the thought of Woodrow Wilson. Above all, they argue, Taylor's insights merit our attention because they indicate how a properly organized civil service can be a locus of statesmanship in a democracy, fulfilling the intentions of the authors of the American Constitution in a contemporary context that differs significantly from what the Founders themselves anticipated.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275942854
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/04/1992
Edition description:	Revised Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

DAVID LEWIS SCHAEFER is Associate Professor of Political Science at Holy Cross College./e His major field of interest is political philosophy. He is the author of The Political Philosophy of Montaigne (1990), of Justice or Tyranny? (1979), and numerous articles on political philosophy that have appeared in such jourbanals as The American Political Science Review, Review of Metaphysics, Polity, Interpretation, and Jourbanal of Politics.

ROBERTA RUBEL SCHAEFER is Executive Director of the Worcester (Massachusetts) Municipal Research Bureau and Lecturer in Politics at Assumption College./e She has previously taught political science at Rutgers, Temple, and Clark Universities, and at Nichols College. She is the author or co-author of several articles and papers on public administration and political economy, which have been published in such jourbanals as The Southern Review of Public Administration and The Public Interest. She has also held administrative positions with the U.S. Office of Education and the American Hospital Association.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: Sir Henry Taylor and the Study of Public Administration
Concerning the Education of Youth destined for a Civil Career
Of the Age at which Official and Parliamentary Life should commence
A Statesman's most pregnant Function lies in the Choice and Use of Instruments
On the Getting and Keeping of Adherents
In the Choice of Men how far Literary Merit may be a Guide
Of Official Style
On the Inferences of Merit or Demerit from Popularity, and something concerning False Reputations
Concerning Interviews
Concerning the Conscience of a Statesman
Concerning the Age at which a Statesman should marry, and what manner of Woman he should take to Wife
Concerning the Effects of Order and the Maintenance of Equanimity
Concerning certain Points of Practice
On Official Criticism
On the Arts of Rising
On Quarrelling
On the Ethics of Politics
On Consistency in a Statesman
On Secrecy
On Ambition
Concerning Rank as a Qualification for High Office
On Decisiveness
Concerning Reform of the Executive, and the Constitution of an Office or Establishment for Transacting the Business of a Minister
Further respecting the Establishment of a Minister-Private Secretaries-Clerks
Concerning Précis-writers, and Processes of Business
On the Methods by which a Statesman can upon occasion get his Work done out of Doors
On Parliamentary Interposition in Administrative Business
On Aids to Legislation to be derived from Executive Experience
Of the Manner in which able, and of the Manner in which indifferent Statesmen are deterred from availing themselves of able Service; and of the Evils which ensue from Men's Authority being in the inverse Ratio of their Abilities
On the Administration of Patronage
Concerning the Amusements of a Statesman
On Manners
Of Statesmen bred such, and of Statesmen bred in the Army, in the Navy, in Commerce, and at the Bar
The Statesman out of Office
Conclusion
Notes
Index