Leonard D. White Quotes

14 Sourced Quotes

You cannot give an official power to do right without at the same time giving him power to do wrong.

Leonard D. White
Curiously enough, commentators on American political institutions have never produced a systematic analysis of our administrative system except from the point of view of the lawyer. Until the last few years even the text books have obstinately closed their eyes to this enormous terrain, studded with governmental problems of first magnitude and fascinating interest; and even today they dismiss the subject with a casual chapter. But certainly no one pretends that administration can still be put aside as a practical detail which clerks could arrange after doctors had agreed upon principles."

Leonard D. White
Any system of public administration inevitably reflects its environment.

Leonard D. White
[ Public administration is merely] a special case of the larger category, administration, a process which is common to all organized human effort and which is highly developed in modern corporate business, in the church, in the Red Cross, in education, and in international bodies, public and private.

Leonard D. White
The objective of public administration is the most efficient utilization of the resources at the disposal of officials and employees.

Leonard D. White
The role of administration in the modern state is profoundly affected by the general political and cultural environment of the age.

Leonard D. White
Few of the major tasks of modern administration can be carried out without the constant support of the technician.

Leonard D. White
To conduct of government business... [is similar to the] conduct of the affairs of any other social organization, commercial, philanthropic, religious, or educational, in all of which good management is recognized as an element essential to success.

Leonard D. White
Public administration is the management of men and materials in the accomplishment of the purposes of the state.

Leonard D. White
More and more clearly it is being understood that the promise of American life will never be realized until American administration has been lifted out of the ruts in which it has been left by a century of neglect.

Leonard D. White
[ Lawyers are clear. On the one hand, they are important and deserve] special consideration [because they] are always found at the right hand of the administrator whose actions must be legally defensible. A lawyer, therefore, sits close to the seat of administrative authority... Policy may have to yield to constitutionality, and the lawyers prescribe. On the other hand, it must be said that the training of the lawyer, based on precedent, and looking backward rather than forward for guidance, is not a training which is suited to make an ideal administrator.

Leonard D. White
One foundation for the future of American democracy is a sound administrative system, able to discharge with competence and integrity the tasks laid upon it by the people. The present system is far in advance of that which sufficed in 1925, but its improvement has no more than kept pace with the added responsibilities heaped upon it.

Leonard D. White
Whenever we [public officials] make a mistake, some-one jumps on us for it, but whenever we do something well nobody pays any attention to us. We never get any recognition except when we get 'bawled out'.

Leonard D. White
As a nation we are, however, slowly accepting the fact that the loose-jointed, easy-going, somewhat irresponsible system of administration which we carried over from our rural, agricultural background is no longer adequate for present and future needs.

Leonard D. White