ABSTRACT
From their beginnings, American administrative thought and practice have evinced a managerial spirit. First alluded to by Alexander Hamilton as ‘energy in the executive’, American managerialism was authoritatively endorsed by Leonard White in his seminal 1926 textbook The Study of Administration and by President Franklin Roosevelt’s Committee on Administrative Management. The scientific management movement originated in the United States, and among the most successful of American administrative reforms is the city-manager form of local government. Government run with business-like efficiency has been a goal of American presidents from Theodore Roosevelt through Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. It is understandable that American public administration and management are often viewed as a manifestation of the business-corporate style that enjoys a favored place in the American practical imagination.
