ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the framers of the US Constitution dealt with this individual liberty versus community good problem. Their solutions to this problem have dramatically affected the roles of career administrators in the American democratic system. The founding of the American political system was an extraordinary and fortuitous achievement. Nowhere in the history of the world had a democratic republic been established and maintained over such a large and diverse territory as the United States. The libertarian focus of American government deflects attention away from the ends of governance to the means necessary to preserve private liberties. The consequence of this libertarian bias is that career public administrators frequently encounter difficulty engaging citizens in the business of government. The dominance of private over public life is what distinguishes American democracy from the democracy of classical Greece. Americans are beholden to the Anti-Federalists for their communitarian-centered view of democratic governance.
