ABSTRACT
"Economy and efficiency" are related historically to, and were engendered by, the transition in American life from nineteenth-century to twentieth-century conditions. "Economy and efficiency", together with other concepts, such as "scientific", replaced a "moralistic" approach to governmental improvement. "The efficiency movement repairs and adapts the machinery of government which the home rule movement frees, the commission movement simplifies, and the social movement uses in the interest of the people". "Efficiency" means for them, economy, and "economy" means less money spent by government, more retained by taxpayers—simply that. "The efficiency of administration is measured by the ratio of the effects actually obtained with the available resources to the maximum effects possible with the available resources". The concept of a hierarchy of purposes may be of value in mediating between the normative and the descriptive aspects of efficiency.
