ABSTRACT
Public administrators should not be insensitive to all pressures from their environment. This chapter focuses on the thin line that separates acceptable influence by political actors from unacceptable and illegal harassment of administrative officials. A vital function of administrative law is keeping open the channels of communication between public administrators and concerned individual and group interests. Civil service reformers, elected political officials, court justices, public administration scholars, and public administrators themselves have all noted how administrative behavior can be undermined by unnecessary and counterproductive intrusions. Generally, the limitations placed on the president's appointment and removal powers have been directed at stabilizing the administrative process, professionalizing its character, protecting public administrators from undue interference and harassment. Some legislators use their personal legislative powers to cajole, harass, and pressure administrators in other ways in an attempt to win administrative decisions favorable to the special interests to which they owe their political careers.
